John W. Cooper

John Walcott Cooper, Jr. (February 17, 1873 – 1966) was an African-American ventriloquist, entertainer, and singer with the Southern Jubilee Singers. He was known as the "Black Napoleon of Ventriloquism" and also performed under the pseudonym Hezekiah Jones. Over the course of his lifetime Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists.

He was born in 1873 in Brooklyn to John Walcott Cooper, Sr. and Annie Morris. His parents originally lived in the southern part of the United States; John Cooper Sr. was originally from Beaufort, South Carolina, and Annie Morris was originally from Georgia. In 1871, the family moved North.

He dropped out of school in the third grade at age 8, in 1881.

Before his 13th birthday, in 1886, both of Cooper's parents died. Cooper took on a job as an exercise boy at Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn. While working at Sheepshead Bay Race Track, Cooper met an unidentified white ventriloquist who introduced him to his first exposure of this form of entertainment. The ventriloquist attempted to convince and frighten Cooper into believing that the horses he was working with could talk. This was one of the various examples that many speculate prompted Cooper to become a ventriloquist.

John W. Cooper began his career in 1886 with the Southern Jubilee Singers, touring parts of New England, Canada, and the Mid-Atlantic States for four years. While he toured with the Southern Jubilee Singers, he began to formulate his ventriloquism act. Cooper wrote and performed his pieces in front of predominantly white audiences.

In 1900-01, Cooper joined Richards and Pringles Georgia Minstrels. Unlike the other minstrel performers in the group, Cooper performed as a ventriloquist and did not wear blackface as part of their act. The minstrels, an act that got its start in the 1830s before vaudeville and burlesque, typically participated in an overtly racist style of performance known as blackfacing in which the singers and dancers would paint their faces with black cosmetics that mocked African Americans. Cooper essentially performed in minstrel shows but was not a minstrel himself and introduced a performance style that contrasted blackfacing. After touring with Richards and Pringles Georgia Minstrels, he became known as “the Black Napoleon of ventriloquism.” He then joined Rusco and Holland's Big Minstrel Festival at the end of 1901.

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