Why 'Public Dancing' was Banned in Oklahoma until 1980

Welcome to the 241st insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we recount America's rocky relationship with dancing, breaking down Oklahoma's notorious ban on grooves and its subsequent rebellion against the Church. 

The dance between expression and suppression has plagued North America for centuries. Culminating in an era of extreme faith during the mid-1800s, under Christian rule, there have been numerous attempts to limit the act, like forbidding same-sex dance and leveraging Prohibition ideals like New York's 'Carabet' law to target both People of Colour and LGBTQ members. Surprisingly, throughout history, dance has been wrongfully used to promote unaffiliated narratives, sparking a series of rebellions against those in power.

Perhaps the most famous case of the 'dancing ban' was fictionally depicted in Herbert Ross' 'Footloose', a 1984 musical based on the rural and heavily Southern Baptist town of Elmore City, Oklahoma. The ban was enacted in 1898 and affected the town's population of 653, under the belief that dancing promoted drinking and casual sex. While there aren't any public records of those detained or fined, permits for dance-centric events were impossible to retrieve for fear of licentious behaviour. 

Lasting nearly 100 years, in 1980, Elmore City High School students initiated a proposal to overturn the ban in hopes of a senior prom. However, many of the community's religious leaders, like F. R. Johnson, a Reverend from the nearby town of Hennepin, objected to the idea, stating, "No good has ever come from a dance. If you have a dance, somebody will crash it, and they'll be looking for only two things—women and booze. When boys and girls hold each other, they get sexually aroused. You can believe what you want, but one thing leads to another."

Despite such divided opinions, the controversy ended in the student's favour, passing with a narrow margin of 3-2 when school board president Raymond Lee broke the stalemate. "Let 'em dance." Lee proclaimed, permitting Elemore City residents to boogie once again.