{"id":2360,"date":"2016-07-30T19:50:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-30T19:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2016-07-30T19:50:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T19:50:15","slug":"seabreeze-beach-showed-skin-color-didnt-matter-when-it-came-right-down-to-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2360","title":{"rendered":"Seabreeze Beach showed skin color didn’t matter when it came right down to it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Terry<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

\"Seabreeze<\/a><\/p>\n

SEABREEZE DANCERS<\/p>\n

The terrible injustice of slavery and segregation and the Jim Crow laws meant for a long time that blacks could not go to the plentiful and beautiful beaches in the South at one time in this country.<\/p>\n

Thank God, that is not the case anymore.<\/p>\n

There were a few places \u2013 very, very few \u2011 where blacks could go, but in 1924 when a three-floor beach hotel was built in Seabreeze Beach, North Carolina, almost suddenly there was a place for blacks to go, dine, walk the beach, swim, fish and as juke joints began to open a place where they could dance to swing music, jazz, blues and popular music form artists like James Brown, Little Richard and The Platters.<\/p>\n

What is interesting is not that Seabreeze became a Music Mecca, although that was important, or that blacks now had a place on a beach, and that was extremely important too, but that despite the segregation and Jim Crow laws that ruled in those days, whites too came to Seabreeze and the races mixed to the music on dance floors up and down the beach. White girls dancing with black men, black girls dancing with white men, and that is an extraordinary picture that was common in Seabreeze.<\/p>\n

As World War II erupted and men were dragged into the conflict, leaving their women behind, the music turned sentimental, such as the Ink Spots\u2019 Do I worry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dDo I worry cause you’re stepping out<\/em><\/strong>
\nDo I worry cause you got me in doubt
\nThough your kisses aren’t right, do I give a bag of beans
\nDo I stay home every night and read my magazine<\/p>\n

Am I frantic, cause we lost that spark
\nIs there panic when it starts turning dark
\nAnd when evening shadows creep, do I lose any sleep over you
\nDo I worry, you can bet your life I do<\/p>\n

Do I worry when the iceman calls
\nDo I worry if Niagara Falls
\nThough you treat me just like dirt<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You think I give a snap<\/em><\/strong>
\nAre my feelings really hurt
\nWhen you’re sitting in somebody else’s lap
\nAm I curious when the gossip flies
\nAm I furious bout your little white lies
\nAnd when all our evenings end
\nCause you got a sick friend that needs you
\nDo I worry, honey, you know dog gone well I do<\/p>\n

Am I frantic, cause we’ve lost that spark
\nIs there panic when it starts turning dark
\nAnd when evening shadows creep
\nDo I lose any sleep over you<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do I worry, you can bet your life, I do\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Segregation coupled with the terrible war turned that the 1940s into a live-for-the-moment because nobody could be certain they would be safe or even alive from one minute to the next, so a place like Seabreeze were all of that could be forgotten while the music played, seafood was consumed, beer drank, and people \u2013 blacks and whites \u2013 danced together the nights away.<\/p>\n

Whites and blacks drank beer together, ate together, danced together and walked the beaches together. Then, of course, with Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act bill in 1964, Seabreeze slowly began to fade as a place where the races mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe land is still there, the water is still there, but the buildings are gone,\u201d said Amanda Freeman, a relative of the original black owners of Seabreeze Beach, on an episode of American Routes.<\/p>\n

But that period of time showed that people could overcome their fears, their distrust of each other based on skin color, and that we are all naturally the same when it comes right down to it. It doesn\u2019t matter what color we are \u2013 white, black, green, blue or pink \u2013 we are all God\u2019s creatures and can live and play and work and fight together as one in the greatest country in the world.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it for today. We \u2013 Mary and I \u2013 are still grieving over the loss of our dear Sophie and need some respite and get out in the sun and fresh air and float freely with the Seabreeze.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER SEABREEZE DANCERS The terrible injustice of slavery and segregation and the Jim Crow laws meant for a long…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","category-mosher","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions\/2362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}