On Sat, 9 Aug 2003, Wendy Marsden wrote:

Rosalie B. wrote:
I think you are seeing things that aren't there. Black and tans can
refer to a couple of different things and people aren't one of them
that springs to mind.

Okay, that's good. I really wondered. I live in New England (where coon
hunting isn't a known sport) and it's a world that's sort of a cross
between a Norman Rockwell town and The Cosby Show, where the blacks I know
tend to be wealthy professionals or community leaders. (In fact, Bill
Cosby lives about 10 miles away, and Norman Rockwell is from this area,
too.)

But my mind really is on the Civil Rights era. We're just about done with
the Civil War and the next unit I'm doing is what happened after the
slaves were freed. It's poisonous to think about.

I'm certain it's referring to black and tan coon hounds... as per:

"there's a silhouette which I finally figure out (at a stop light when I
can study it) is a dog barking up a tree trunk."

That's *the* commonly used icon for coon hunting.