Many women sewed and used these utilitarian objects as ornaments to display, not “voodoo dolls.” The “Mammy” held a place of respect in many homes. This design may have been a tribute to ...

“Are those mammy dolls?” I asked loudly, incredulously. I went to get a closer look. They were not mammy dolls. With clownish red lips, ears pointing straight out, eyes fixed in a dazed stare ...

In her book Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern Memory, Kimberly Wallace-Sanders makes the case that the first dolls were made by black wet nurses as a reflection of “the division ...

“Are those mammy dolls?” I asked loudly, incredulously. I went to get a closer look. They were not mammy dolls. With clownish red lips, ears pointing straight out, eyes fixed in a dazed stare ...

The monthly flea market held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. (Paul Mounce / Corbis) ...