The Duke joint was smoky and dimly lit. The band played a slow, bluesy number inviting

couples onto the dance floor. Pressed tightly together, Elvis is cradling one another

and rocking back and forth, couples swayed into the night. This was slow drive. This is

two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school.

Originating in New Orleans in the 1890s, slow drag is a social dance fusing ragtime, blues

and traditional African dances mixed with slower, sensual movements. Slow drag came roughly

one generation after emancipation. It was one of the first social dances our ancestors

explored freely, reclaiming their own desires and sensualities after generations of hypersexualized

trauma.

Slow drag was danced in southern Duke joints, but over time it spread all the way to the

big apple where anti-blackness wished to see it rot. Slow drag hit Broadway in 1929. This

was huge as it was the first black social dance ever to do so. Anti-black critics claimed

the dance was too sexual, but our people knew slow drag was more than dancing. From 1910

through the 1970s, roughly six million black people migrated from the south to northern

midwestern and western regions, but even throughout the great migration there was a need

to preserve southern customs. Slow drag and other social dances became acts of resistance

and establishing one's sense of self in a new place. Dance has always been a mode of expression

joy and resistance for us. It's important we have creative outlets like dancing that

bring us radical joy. For Radical Joy inspires radical protest. In order to move towards

the future, you've got to look to the past. This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast

by Push Black. If you enjoyed this episode and want to show your support, please rate

and subscribe to our podcast. Together, let's celebrate and honor the legacy of Black History.

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