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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMore than 60 years ago a Black teen from Malvern C.I. was told to stop dancing with a white girl....
....on a Buffalo TV show. Toronto exploded
(Toronto Star) Clayton Johnston was excited to join other ninth-graders on a field trip down the QEW to Buffalo, N.Y., the weekend following Victoria Day in 1959. In addition to seeing the sites, the friendly and outgoing 15-year-old Malvern Collegiate student and 45 of his schoolmates were scheduled to appear on the television show Dance Party.
Dance Party broadcast live Saturday afternoons from WGR-Zs Westside Studios. Back in Toronto, viewers of the popular show, including Leonard and Gwen Johnston, Claytons parents, were glued to their TVs.
Cameras rolled at one oclock. Girls in colourful poodle skirts and boys in dark blazers and ties surrounded host Pat Fagan. The music began, and excited teens swarmed the floor.
....(snip)....
The camera panned the dance floor, focusing on Clayton Johnston partnered with 15-year-old classmate Patty Banks. Thats when things degenerated. Western New York viewers were appalled at the sight of Clayton, one of the few Black students in his high school, dancing with a white girl.
WGR-TVs phone lines lit up. Irate callers demanded the couple be separated. Cameras continued rolling as a student, instructed by Fagan, hesitantly strolled into the mix, tapping Clayton on the shoulder and urging him to leave the dance floor. .............(more)
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2021/02/14/more-than-60-years-ago-a-black-teen-from-malvern-ci-was-told-to-stop-dancing-with-a-white-girl-on-a-buffalo-tv-show-toronto-exploded.html?
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More than 60 years ago a Black teen from Malvern C.I. was told to stop dancing with a white girl.... (Original Post)
marmar
Feb 2021
OP
Butterflylady
(3,523 posts)1. Great story and worth reading.
crickets
(25,896 posts)6. Agreed.
I had never heard of Clayton Johnston before, and I'm glad to know of him now.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)2. K&R for visibility. nt
Me.
(35,454 posts)3. You JUst Never Know
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)4. Had that happened in some states in this country, that kid
would never have grown up at all, much less to become a noted musician. He would have been lynched in 1959 in some places in this country.
dalton99a
(81,065 posts)5. "Local media entirely ignored the story"
Except for the Buffalo Criterion, the only newspaper serving the citys Black readers, local media entirely ignored the story.
The case was different elsewhere. All three Toronto dailies dispatched reporters to the City of Good Neighbours to cover the story. The New York Times noted the occurrence in their paper. CBC Radio had a panel discussion relating to the incident on the show Teen Tempo.
Author Victoria Wolcott, professor of history at the University of Buffalo, writes about the incident in her book, Race, Riots and Roller Coasters. Interracial couples dancing at public venues was controversial but not unheard of in Buffalo. However, Wolcott writes, In this northern city interracial dancing might happen at one of the Hound Dogs auditorium shows or in the Zanzibar Lounge, but it could not be broadcast on live television.
Initially, host Pat Fagan told the Star, in Buffalo, Negros dance with Negros and whites dance with whites. He changed his tune when station manager Van Beuren DeVries claimed no policy existed that banned interracial couples dancing together on the show.
A week after the cross-border offence, DeVries send a letter of apology to young Clayton, We indeed regret this matter and you have our apology for any embarrassment caused by this treatment.
The case was different elsewhere. All three Toronto dailies dispatched reporters to the City of Good Neighbours to cover the story. The New York Times noted the occurrence in their paper. CBC Radio had a panel discussion relating to the incident on the show Teen Tempo.
Author Victoria Wolcott, professor of history at the University of Buffalo, writes about the incident in her book, Race, Riots and Roller Coasters. Interracial couples dancing at public venues was controversial but not unheard of in Buffalo. However, Wolcott writes, In this northern city interracial dancing might happen at one of the Hound Dogs auditorium shows or in the Zanzibar Lounge, but it could not be broadcast on live television.
Initially, host Pat Fagan told the Star, in Buffalo, Negros dance with Negros and whites dance with whites. He changed his tune when station manager Van Beuren DeVries claimed no policy existed that banned interracial couples dancing together on the show.
A week after the cross-border offence, DeVries send a letter of apology to young Clayton, We indeed regret this matter and you have our apology for any embarrassment caused by this treatment.