Beyond the Trivia-The Square Dance

A day in November is designated National Square Dance Day, but the entire month of September is Square Dance Month. Square dancing had almost disappeared from American culture in the 20th century, but it was revived with the help of a U.S. industrialist who promoted it as a wholesome and healthy activity. Who was that industrialist who was largely responsible for the popularity of square dancing? Was it automaker Henry Ford, cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg or oil baron and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller?

Answer:

John D.Rockefeller was a major philanthropist but he did nothing to promote square dancing. Will Kellogg and his brother John were health and nutrition advocates,some say nuts, who ran a sanitarium that promoted all kinds of therapies and training before they started Kellogg cereals. But it was Henry Ford,who brought back square dancing to America through his influence and millions of dollars. He believed it was the most wholesome of entertainment. He even required his employees to take part in square dancing. Many states made it their official dance. There was even a coordinated campaign to make square dancing the official dance of the United States. . and it was all because Ford hated jazz and wanted to eradicate it from American culture.

Henry Ford spent a fortune promoting square dancing and country music in general. He published a manual in 1926 promoting old time dancing music along with instructions how to conduct a square dance. He promoted square dancing clubs across the country. Newspapers published full-page dancing instructions. Nearly three dozen colleges started teaching early American dancing.

It was all because Henry Ford saw jazz as an unwholesome influence on American life, a form of music closely identified with Jews and Blacks. Ford was not only a racist, as many people in that day were, but he hated Jews to the point of publishing a series of books on "The International Jew." As far as jazz, Ford said "“many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.” (What would he have thought if he'd lived to see rock and roll?)

Ford was reported to believe that Jews were planning to control the world. Black people, he thought, weren't necessarily evil, just easily influenced into being manipulated and controlled by Jews. All this anti-Semitic and racist thought led to a national square dance movement. One publication says it's ironic that Ford considered square dancing to be lily white and didn't realize that Black slaves were likely responsible for the call and response form of the dance since they were often required to perform dances at white balls and hadn't been formally trained.

So, if you square danced in school or are still involved in square dancing, it's probably thanks to Henry Ford, whose motivation was inspired by fear and prejudice.