Racial Cross-Casting Prevents C-Span's Airing of "Huck Finn" Clip
A theatrical adaptation of Huck Finn at Maryland's Glenelg Country School featured a performance by a black student cast as Huck Finn and a white student as the run-away slave Jim.
Their performance of one of the show's songs was slated to run on C-Span's "Close Up," a weekly show that highlights high school excellence. But the copyright holder in the play's script denied C-Span permission to air the performance. A spokesman for the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization, which holds the license to the play, cited the race of the actors as grounds for denying permission, although he said his organization is not against cross-casting in general.
Russell Frisby, father of the black student who played Huck, expressed how appalled he was by the decision, "The only rationale for it is that someone in New York believes Huck Finn can't be played by an African-American. I thought we were past the days of 'whites only' clauses."