Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a derog. term for a black person.

1938		D. Runyon ‘The Lemon Drop Kid’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 370: He hears the old guy growling at the stove lid.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 151: The next thing we know we are in the midst of a bunch of five stove lids in striped clothes.
1983		I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 47: Color Allusions, Other than ‘Black’ and ‘Negro’: […] stove-lid.
2001		D. Jenkins Money-Whipped Steer-Job 20: I remember him turning to the obituaries in the Light & Shopper and saying, ‘Here we go again—four pepperbellies and three stove lids’.