Waltzing in the Dark

This study focuses on the social, racial, and artistic climate for African-American performers working during the swing era, roughly the late 1920s through the 1940s. The career of Norton and Margot, a ballroom dance team whose work was thwarted by the racial tenets of the era, serves as a tour guide and barometer of the times on this excursion, through the worlds of African-American vaudeville, separate black and white Americas, the European touring circuit, and pre-Civil Rights era racial etiquette.