Though sightings are pretty infrequent today, the yard ornaments that portray blacks in subservient roles have the power to gnaw insatiably at the spirit of blacks and to disgust others who are unaware of the furtive and notable role these "Jockos" played in the first half of the 19^th century.

But escaping slaves understood then that the jockey statue would guide them to the Underground Railroad and to freedom. (In Following the Drinking Gourd, the lyrics surreptitiously suggested slaves follow the "drinking gourd," a nickname for the Big Dipper, which pointed to the North Star and the way to freedom. Among other things, it advised that travel was safest in the spring – "when the sun comes back.")

The jockey, in a similarly secret way, pointed to safe houses along the Underground Railroad.

"These statues were used as markers on the Underground Railroad throughout the South into Canada," said historian/author Charles Blockson, curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Green ribbons were tied to the arms of the statue to indicate safety; red ribbons meant to keep going."

"People who don’t know the history of the jockey have feelings of humiliation and anger when they see the statue," he added. "But this figure which was sometimes used in a clandestine nature, and sometimes without the knowledge of the person who owned the statue, was a positive and supportive image to American-Americans on the road to freedom."

Sometime, added Blockson, a flag was put into the hand of the statue to indicate safety.

It’s because of this role that jockeys – or their precursors, the groomsmen, which were dressed in slave clothing – have become sought-after collectibles.

"For those interested in collecting the jockey, it’s important that they know the role it played along the way of the Underground Railroad," said Glennette Tilley Turner, who lives in Wheaton, Ill., and has written about the Underground Railroad in DuPage County. In the Chicago area, statues once signaled safe houses from Glenview to Pullman.

History lessons can come in surprising forms and places.

In the lobby of Temple University’s Sullivan Hall, a groomsman stands sentinel, sometimes taking visitors aback.

"People who come here to the school for the first time don’t know how to respond," said Blockson, the statue’s owner. He bought the statue, a 5-foot-tall likeness of a black boy dating from the mid-1800s, in a Greenwich Village market in 1984. But, added Blockson, "their look of confusion begins to change when they read the description at its base."

Another groomsman statue makes an unexpected appearance in one of Beverly Jenkins’ romance novels, Indigo (Avon Books, $5.50). This one leads the main character to freedom and to love when he sees a lantern in its hands.

Jenkins was inspired to link her love story with the Underground Railroad and to include the groomsman statue after reading Blockson’s research. "I don’t collect the statues," the 46-year-old writer said, "but I believe using African-American history in the backdrop … is one way to educate people."

There is no consensus on the statue’s origin and several theories are passed around. But it is known that the jockey’s precursor, the groomsman, was born in the Old South. Dressed in slave clothes, the groomsman later evolved into its jockey image and became a national figure after World War II. "Residents of new housing developments, perhaps to give themselves more of a sense of being a member of the privileged master class, began placing ‘Jocko’ on their lawns in great numbers," writes Kenneth W. Goings in his book Mammy and Uncle Mose (Indian University Press, $22.50).

Jenkins, who lives in rural south-eastern Michigan, said she only has to look across the road or take a drive through rural America for sightings.

"They may have been taken off lawns in urban America in the 1960s with the civil rights movement, but they weren’t put out of sight everywhere," she said.

Blockson said he also spots the jockey statues in parts of America. For him, these sightings are reminders of the path that was taken to escape slavery.

"There’s a spirituality about the path that was taken to bring African-Americans to freedom," Blockson said. "When you visit the stops along the way of the Underground Railroad, you still feel it. It’s there. It’s not the kind of thing you can show to somebody. It’s the kind of thing you either feel or you don’t."

Legend has it that George Washington created the first groomsman hitching post, or "Jocko," in honor of the frozen slave in the 1770s.

According to Florida Atlantic University history professor Kenneth W. Goings, in his book Mammy and Uncle Mose (Indiana University Press), Gen. Washington wanted to mount a surprise attack on a British encampment during the Revolutionary War. Several blacks – slaves and free men – joined the group.

A young black man named Tom Graves wanted to fight but Washington said he was too young and asked the boy to hold a lantern for the troops as they crossed the Delaware, Goings writes. (Some versions of this story say it was Graves’ son, "Jocko," a nickname or given name, who died holding the reins of the horses.)

When the troops rowed back after the battle, instead of finding their horses hitched to a post, the reins were in the hands of Graves, who had frozen to death. Washington was moved by the boy’s dedication, Goings writes, and ordered a statue made in his honor.

Others think the black lawn jockeys were representative of blacks’ role in organized horse racing. But this connection has been strongly disputed.