© Bettmann / CORBIS
“ We will not appear unless Negroes are allowed to sit anywhere , ” The Beatles state in a press statement on September 6 , 1964 . Halfway through a 23 - city U.S. duty tour , the group was looking ahead to their date at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville , where they ’d heard that blacks were confined to the balcony or upper tier at public effect such as concert .
The next 24-hour interval , The Florida Times - Unionran a disparaging column gentle “ Beatlemania Is A Mark Of A Frenetic Era . ” The chemical group was phone “ a passing fad , perfectly timed and fitted to the mores , ethical motive and ideals of a fast - pace , disruptive time . ” Their sound was described as “ gamy pitched monotone . ” There was no mention of separatism , but it was well-defined that the composition just considered these “ hirsute curse of Liverpool ” intelligent enough to comment on societal issues .
“ The Beatles were intruder in the eyes of most citizenry , ” says Kitty Oliver , a Jacksonville aborigine who was one of a smattering of black teenaged sports fan who attended their Gator Bowl concert . “ They were nobodies , and strange on top of that . Especially in the Dixie , in a place like Jacksonville , where tension was already high about difference of opinion . Whether you were coming from another United States Department of State to demonstrate civil right , or arrive from another country to undermine our young – it was equally sinister . ”
The Fab Four ’s frankness surely stood in sharp contrast to the behavior of most American soda water stars , who were coach to bond to good topic like best-loved desserts and most unenviable personal habits .
“ At that time , no one that I knew of really took the initiative to come up to any kind of social issues , ” says Mark Lindsay , lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders . “ I can see The Beatles amount over here and being attack by this weird , unjust insurance of sequestration . They were not just serious musicians . They had intellect . They spoke up . ”
With Great Power…
“ They were really the first mathematical group to have the power to do that , ” agrees vocalist Brian Hyland , whose big hit was “ Sealed With a Kiss . ” “ They used that weapons platform really well . They could ’ve just rent it mount and not said anything about the Jacksonville show . It take a good deal of braveness . ”
Both of these creative person were part of Dick Clark ’s Caravan of Stars , an interracial tour crossway course with The Beatles in an America that was moil with racial latent hostility . Protesters were marching in northerly city from Seattle to Baltimore demanding better jobs , schooling and housing for lightlessness . In the Dixie , the office was more do-or-die . Black were still denied a place at a dejeuner tabulator or a seat in the front of a city bus . In July , President Lyndon Johnson signed the turning point Civil Rights Act , banning discrimination “ on the ground of race , colouration , faith , sex , or national origin . ”
But old prejudice die hard . In the weeks after , riots broke out in Harlem and Rochester . pitch-dark churches , house and businesses were burn down in Mississippi . And there were infinite incidences of violence throughout southern cities , including Jacksonville .
In February 1964 – the same calendar month The Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan - a bomb exploded in the home of a black family whose son had integrated into a white school . A month later , riot broke out .
Oliver recall , “ I was a junior in high school , and there was a very tense site downtown that summer . I got involved in demonstration and picketing . There was n’t any furiousness that I call back , but multitude were cry at us . ”
When The Beatles arrived , the metropolis had settled down , but was still twirl its wheels in integration efforts . Only 60 of the 30,000 dark student in Duval County attended unified schools .
Live at the Gator Bowl
Opening the concert that Friday night was the Exciters , a black roentgen & B vocal quartet from New York , better known for their collision “ state Him . ” Though WAPE - “ The Big Ape ” - the local radio post promoting the concert , pick out the reinforcement act , The Beatles were most likely proud of .
Oliver recalls , “ Where I sat , there were two other black child . I run into them accidentally as I establish my seat . I go bad alone . No school acquaintance would go . I remember that I sit in the in high spirits - up least expensive seats , because that is all my family could yield . Yes , it was scary in the sense that I did n’t acknowledge what to look . You evolve a strong aerial for danger , watchful of any sudden motion or faulting of mood in a gang , and , at the same time , a buckler that allows you to look flat ahead and seem impervious . ”
Once The Beatles pop out to meet , Oliver forget about any potential danger . “ There were a slew of fille yell , and I was screaming too , ” she say with a laugh . “ And sear all the lyric to the Sung . I loved The Beatles , and had seenHard Day ’s Nightseven time . I even won one of those scant “ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is my favorite Beatle ” contests and my name was called on the radio receiver announcing that I had come through a free sign-language album . I kept it for decade . ”
And The Beatles ’ human rights push continued for decades , until the group ’s final stage and justly on through their solo calling . Paul McCartney summed up their position when he told a reporter in 1966 , " We were n’t into prejudice . We were always very slap-up on mixed - airstream audiences . With that being our attitude , shared by all the group , we never desire to run South Africa or any places where blacks would be separated . It was n’t out of any dainty - goody affair ; we just thought , ' Why should you separate smutty people from blank ? That ’s stupid , is n’t it ? ' "
“ I think The Beatles did a lot in term of bridging cultures , and that was something very fresh at that sentence , ” says Oliver , who now lives in Ft . Lauderdale , where she ’s an unwritten historian and author . “ They came from another country and another refinement , so that made them intriguing to many black-market hoi polloi . These hoi polloi were unlike and they were singing some R & B songs that were familiar to us . It was the cross - ethnic aspect that went beyond racial offspring that made them so crucial . They gave us a unexampled means of dialoguing at a time when we were really at betting odds with each other . ”
