More than 60 years ago a Black teen from Malvern C.I. was told to stop dancing with a white girl.... [View all]

[marmar]

....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-Z’s Westside Studios. Back in Toronto, viewers of the popular show, including Leonard and Gwen Johnston, Clayton’s parents, were glued to their TVs.

Cameras rolled at one o’clock. 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. That’s 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-TV’s 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?