The Only Common Thread: Race, Youth, and the Everyday Rebellion of Rock and Roll, Cleveland, Ohio, 1952-1966
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THE ONLY COMMON THREAD: RACE, YOUTH, AND THE EVERYDAY REBELLION OF ROCK AND ROLL, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1952-1966 DANA ARITONOVICH Bachelor of Arts in Communications Lake Erie College May, 2006 submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY at the CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY May, 2010 This thesis has been approved for the Department of HISTORY and the College of Graduate Studies by _____________________________________________ Thesis Chairperson, Dr. Karen Sotiropoulos ___________________________ Department & Date _____________________________________________ Dr. David Goldberg ___________________________ Department & Date _____________________________________________ Dr. Thomas Humphrey ___________________________ Department & Date THE ONLY COMMON THREAD: RACE, YOUTH, AND THE EVERYDAY REBELLION OF ROCK AND ROLL, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1952-1966 DANA ARITONOVICH ABSTRACT This thesis is a social and cultural history of young people, race relations, and rock and roll music in Cleveland between 1952 and 1966. It explores how the combination of de facto segregation and rock and roll shaped attitudes about race for those coming of age after the Second World War. Population changes during the Second Great Migration helped bring the sound of southern black music to northern cities like Cleveland, and provided fertile ground for rock and roll to flourish, and for racial prejudice to be confronted. Critics blamed the music for violence, juvenile delinquency, and sexual depravity, among other social problems. In reality, the music facilitated racial understanding, and gave black and white artists an outlet through which they could express their hopes and frustrations about their lives and communities. Through the years, the music provided a window into the lives of “the other” that young Americans in a segregated environment might not otherwise experience. The civil rights movement was already creating a national debate about race in American society, but when rock and roll took over the hearts and minds of teenagers across the country the public discourse reached another level. Original oral histories conducted with music fans, performers, and deejays as well as other Cleveland-specific primary sources provide the basis for my argument about rock and roll‟s iii black roots providing a cultural education for a generation of music fans, including those who adhered to the racial prejudice of their parents; this cultural education also inspired fear in many adults for the change that a liberalization of racial views and sexual mores brought with it. Rock and roll was carried to the North with the Second Great Migration, and along with technological advances in radio and the recording industry, changed the way music was heard and how Americans perceived one another. As important as rock and roll was to young Americans, however, its influence would only go so far in changing racial attitudes and inspiring new ideas about what American society should be. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………... iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………. 1 II. THE BIG BEAT………………………………………………………… 16 “The Industry Goes for It”………………………………………… 21 King of the Moondoggers…………………………………………. 28 “And a little child shall lead them”………………………………... 36 A Malicious Campaign…………………………………………….. 46 III. ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY……………………………….. 50 The King of Rock and Roll…………………………………………. 55 Hail, Hail Rock and Roll……………………………………………. 58 With All Deliberate Speed………………………………………….. 64 Hitsville, U.S.A……………………………………………………... 69 Musical Melting Pot………………………………………………….74 Radio Free Cleveland………………………………………………...80 IV. DANCING IN THE STREET…………………………………………… 87 Heat Wave…………………………………………………………… 91 The Revolution Has Come to Town…………………………………. 95 Separate and Unequal………………………………………………. 101 The Only Common Thread…………………………………………. 105 A Smoldering Pocket……………………………………………….. 110 Us. vs. Them………………………………………………………... 115 v V. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………. 120 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………. 127 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION There was an integration problem in…America, a pretty severe problem back then. But there was no [segregation] in music….Kids danced to Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis…Chuck Berry said to me one time… “You know, Carl, we might be doing as much with our music as our leaders in Washington to bring down the barriers.” He was right.1 --Carl Perkins Rock and roll did not start out to break down barriers. It was rhythm and blues; it was soul; it was the expression of the fears and passions and everyday lives of black Americans set to a rousing, thumping, exquisite beat that infected the spirits of millions of teenagers, black and white. It created a sensation much feared by racists, music critics, and parents alike. Rock and roll music was a force unlike anything the world had ever seen. Though its impact was felt in fashion, movies, television, radio, and politics as well as in music, it also influenced the racial attitudes of many listeners and became a generational battleground on the issues of race and tradition. In his study of the early days of rock music in the South, Race, Rock, and Elvis (2005), Michael Bertrand writes that any thorough analysis of the twentieth-century southern experience “must acknowledge that music, including rock ‟n‟ roll, affected people and how they saw 1 Michael T. Bertrand, Race, Rock, and Elvis (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005), 41. 1 themselves and the world around them.”2 Certainly this sentiment applies as well to those living outside the South, and includes listeners as well as performers. Cleveland‟s ill-fated 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, hosted by white disk jockey Alan Freed, brought race and music together in controversy when a mostly black group of fans rioted as they tried entering the crowded Cleveland Arena to watch what was later described as the first rock and roll concert. The effects of the Moondog on Cleveland‟s music and racial atmosphere may have seemed insignificant to many at the time, but it is a milestone in the formation of concern about the music‟s implications regarding young Americans, and it helped set the stage for Cleveland to become known as the home of rock and roll. This thesis is a social and cultural history of young people, race relations, and rock and roll music in Cleveland between 1952 and 1966. It explores how the combination of de facto segregation and rock and roll shaped attitudes about race for those coming of age after the Second World War. Population changes during the Second Great Migration helped bring the sound of southern black music to northern cities like Cleveland, and provided fertile ground for rock and roll to flourish, and for racial prejudice to be confronted. Critics blamed the music for violence, juvenile delinquency, and sexual depravity, among other social problems. In reality, the music facilitated racial understanding, and gave black and white artists an outlet through which they could express their hopes and frustrations about their lives and communities. Since racism continues to plague American society and Cleveland, according to the 2000 census, is the third most-segregated city in the United States, the music cannot be considered a panacea 2 Bertrand, 6. 2 for all of society‟s ills.3 The 1966 Hough riots, which came in the middle of rock and roll‟s second decade of dominance, are a turning point in Cleveland‟s political and social history, as the violence, much of it blamed on black youth, forced many black and white Clevelanders to reappraise the progress of civil rights activism in regard to desegregation, poverty, and the elimination of bigotry in society as well as in their own minds. The riots also helped give rise to Cleveland‟s black power movement which was decidedly more confrontational and active in protecting their communities throughout the last half of the 1960s; this new attitude was being reflected in much of the music of the period, providing a complementary soundtrack for a new era of black pride and activism. Through the years, the music provided a window into the lives of “the other” that young Americans in a segregated environment might not otherwise experience. The civil rights movement was already creating a national debate about race in American society, but when rock and roll took over the hearts and minds of teenagers across the country the public discourse reached another level. Rock and roll was co-opted by (and later directly marketed to) young people who were able to make decisions about their lives as never before: they drove automobiles; they listened to their own kind of music on car and transistor radios; they had jobs which provided disposable income; they generally stayed in school longer which enabled them to choose their own career paths. The American teenager was at the forefront of a new and improved consumer culture in the 1950s, and the music industry recognized the 3 Wendell Cox, “Misreading the Tea Leaves: The Census Bureau‟s metropolitan-segregation report,” National Review Online, December 4, 2002, http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/comment- cox120402.asp (accessed April 24, 2010); U.S. Bureau of the Census, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000, Chapter 5, Residential Segregation of Blacks or African Americans: 1980 to 2000, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/resseg/ch5.html (accessed April 25, 2010). December 6, 2004. 3 power of the post-war generation. The grassroots efforts of these young Americans, black and white, who listened to the same music, are certainly political in nature even if those music fans did not consider themselves activists in the traditional sense. Future California Senator S.I. Hayakawa said in 1956 that “Integration is not a blueprint drawn up in Washington. It is the daily, uneventful business of whites and Negroes sitting beside each other in a street car or school room, at a work bench or lunch counter, without thinking about it.”4 That included rock and roll. The essence of rock opponents‟ objections was the fact that black and white kids liked the same music.