Does the name Mr.Charlie in blues mean a white person?

Yes. Mr. Charlie, Charlie, Boss Charlie, (sometimes spelled as Cholly or Chalie) was a derogatory term referring to a white man in black culture for decades. Not all white men, but generally bosses, overseers, prison guards,etc.

James Baldwin wrote a play titled Blues For Mister Charlie, based on the murder of Emmet Till-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_for_Mister_Char...

Zora Neale Hurston used the term several times in her great book Their Eyes Were Watching God

http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/caro/?p=816

And many blues songs, especially from the 20s-40s used the phrase.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/824690/post...

(scroll down to #73)

Blues For Mr Charlie

Blues For Mister Charlie

Music, especially Blues, was once far from "colorblind".

I always thought "Charlie" and it's variations referred to a white person of "rank" secular importance.

Interesting links provided

Got to admit not really comprehending this ?

Heard this song in my teens. Considering Lightin' wrote it telling a story I wouldn't think he was telling it about somebody white. Why does the song have to be about any color? I always thought of music as color blind.

~

@Hope

Coming up in Motown at that Music's explosion, every single kid or grown up here honestly didn't see color in the music. We only know that we loved it. That's more or less what I meant that it was color blind to us. We were very young and am grateful for it. I'm not convinced that Mr. Charlie in this song was about a white man or let's put it this way the boss man in a derogatory manner.

http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&l...

Paul G. Romano <romano@uclink4.berkeley.edu>

Jeffrey Berglund asked about the origin of the name "Mr.Charlie"

for whites in the South.

I believe the nickname came about because of the predominance of

white Southern males named "Charles," possibly reflecting the

Cavalier origins of many of the old Southern aristocracy. In a

footnote to the booklet accompanying the extraordinary CD BLUES

IN THE MISSISSIPPI NIGHT [by Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy, and

Sonny Boy Williamson (the first one); Rykodisc RCD 90155], Alan

Lomax writes:

"There were also legends of more kindly white bosses. In this

area, Charles was a favorite name among whites in the deep

south, so it was good strategy for a black man to address any

strange white boss as "Mister Charlie." "Mr. Charlie's" were

the subject of legends. .... There was "Mr. Charlie the Mercy

Man," so called because he would intervene between a bullying

white man and his black victims."

Paul Romano

Political Science Dept.

UC Berkeley

An excellent read right down to the the accurate references of the different Mr. Charlie's, names, who they were and what they represented.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AysKQwKOe78C&pg=P...

I will misinterpret many ?? but never the research.