the leader crow voiced by cliff edwards was originally named "jim crow" for script purposes. the other crows are all voiced by african-american actors and singers, all members of the hall johnson choir: nick stewart, james baskett, jim carmichael and hall johnson. the late famous duo of african-american dancers freddie and eugene jackson were invited and hired by disney to work as live-action reference and models for the animators of the characters, like the chief-animator and disney legend ward kimball, improvising dances and movements then used in the iconic musical sequence "when i see an elephant fly". despite suggestions of racism by writers like richard schickel, many historians, critics, writers, pundits and personalities such as john grant, leonard maltin, john canemaker, floyd norman, eric goldberg, alex wainer, michael wilmington, whoopi goldberg and neal gabler reject these claims. for instance, the crows are noted as forming the majority of the characters in the movie who are empathetic and sympathetic to dumbo's plight (the others are timothy q. mouse and mrs jumbo), they are free spirits who serve nobody, and intelligent characters aware of the power of self-confidence and of what means being ostracized and marginalized, unlike the stepin fetchit stereotype common at that time and in the previous decade. furthermore, their song "when i see an elephant fly" is more orientated to mocking timothy mouse than dumbo's large ears.