How Lindy Hop Helped Desegragation

Sing, sing, sing, sing everybody start to sing la dee da dee whoa ho ho now your singin’ with a swing! That wonderful sound that filled from the hot air on summer nights at the legendary Savoy Ballroom, Harlem, New York can still be heard today in ballrooms through out the country.

When most people think of the legendary era of Swing that spanned the late 1920’s all the way through the early 1940’s they think of it as nothing more than a form of dance. But in actuality Swing was created to ease the tensions of segregation and hopefully put and end to it! Many people believe that swing had made segregation worse, but in actuality it helped the movement more than it hurt it.

During the roaring 20’s, 30’s and 40’s not only were the Afro- Americans dealing with segregation but so were American woman as the woman’s suffrage movement gained more and more backing. Teenagers were also looking for their place within the American sub culture and turned to swing as a happy medium in teenage acceptance.

Having partner dancing where both members were on the same footing and echoed gender equality soothed the gender issue.

“Whether they were men or women, y

1912 – Vernon and Irene Castle make closed couple dancing acceptable.

1860 – First close couple dancing begins.

oung or old, black or white every portion of society found some form of Swing favoritable for their dancing and listening. Which surely helped Swings mission of tolerance and mutual respect,” stated professor Stowe.

If it hadn’t been for Herbert “Whitey” White the young Lindy Hoppers would have never taken a huge step towards desegregation and ended up on the silver screen! Whitey was the head bouncer at the Savoy and not only had a chance to see the best dancers each night but also had access to the ballroom at all times. With all of the following advantages he took the best dancers and together they represented The Savoy in dance contests around town. Soon after the “Whitey’s Lindy Hopper’s” were formed they were offered money and Whitey became their agent. There were 3 original couples that made up the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, though more were added and some came and went. The original couples were Norma Miller, who documented her experience in her book “Swingin’ at the Savoy,” and her partner Billy Ricker, Willamae and Shookie Beasley, and Lucille Middleton and Leon “King of Swing” James. With the great Frankie Manning helping Whitey choreograph the dancers routines, they couldn’t go wrong. The two men are contributed to inventing the two greatest innovations in Lindy Hop. Lindy usually focuses on one couple at a time, but Manning and Whitey had all of the couples share the floor. Another great creation that came from Manning was the very first aerial step. This move consisted of the man picking up his partner and launching her all the way over his back. Today this is known as the Over the Back. Soon after came the Over the Head. As their popularity grew the Lindy Hoppers would find themselves in Hollywood dancing in the movies, “A Day at the Race” and “Hellzapoppin’.” But since the south was still hostile on the subject of the African American’s in movies, the scene with the dancers were independent from the plot. When shown down South they could be taken out. More gigs poured in as they became more and more in demand and were booked six solid months. People just couldn’t get enough of the Hoppers and they were asked to host the New York Worlds Fair where they were shown in the very first TV broad cast of it. But Whitey overestimated the dancers stamina. He expected them to dance six hours, rest one, and then dance six more in the ev

Some topics in this essay:
Lindy Hoppers, Afro- Americans, Worlds Fair, Soon Savoy’s, Norma Miller, Harlem York, Arthur Murray, , Movie Tone, Frankie Manning, lindy hoppers, form swing, couple dancing, closed couple, sing sing, closed couple dancing, lindy hop, norma miller, whitey’s lindy hoppers, swing dance, savoy ballroom, york worlds fair, vernon irene, vernon irene castle, dance lessons mail,