This "lawn jockey" is an item used as lawn decoration. It is a racial caricature and promotes the idea of black servitude. The lawn statue portrays a young African-American man dressed in a jockey's clothes with a stooped back, stocky build, darting eyes, and an oversized nose and lips. One hand is extended as if to receive the reins of a horse, though this example is holding a two-sided sign reading "happy journey" and an arrow indicating "please park here" on either side. This particular example is the "Jocko" type which is a reference to "Jocko Graves", an enslaved 12-year-old stable boy who froze to death holding a lantern to aid troops returning from General Washington's crossing of the Delaware during the Revolutionary War, though there is little historic evidence to support this event. Despite many Americans, especially African Americans, finding these lawn jockeys racially offensive, there are some still being manufactured for online sale as of 2019.
