Spotlighting The Black Man With a “Peg Leg”
The Entertainment and Business Contributions of Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates
One of the things I particularly love about non-fiction books are what I call “side-discoveries.” What I am referring to here are those esoteric, little known historical facts that send you down a rabbit hole of research. Recently, this occurred with a book I’ve been sipping like fine wine for months entitled “Saying It Loud: 1966– The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement.”
In Chapter 16 entitled “The Peg Leg Bates Purge,” author Mark Whitaker shares the travel experience of a group of civil rights activists, including the renowned Ella Baker, through New York’s Catskills Mountains. Their destination — Peg Leg Country Club, which the author described as “the only Black-owned hotel in the region known as “the Borscht Belt,” with its summer resorts catering mostly to Jewish city dwellers. The facility was owned by the son of a North Carolina sharecropper and childhood rap dance prodigy named Clayton Bates, known as “Peg Leg”………..
At this point in my reading, I bookmarked the page and began a deep dive into who this little known figure who I’d never heard of. Here’s what I discovered.
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (1907-1998) is a Black American dancer, entertainer, and tap dancer known for his remarkable skills despite having a wooden prosthetic leg. He was born on October 11, 1907, in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, and lost his leg at the age of 12 due to a cotton gin accident. Despite this setback, he overcame adversity and became an accomplished performer.
The "Peg Leg Bates Hotel and Country Club" was a resort that Clayton Bates founded in 1951 in Kerhonkson, New York. It was a recreational retreat for Black Americans during a time of segregation, providing a place where people could relax, enjoy entertainment, and have a sense of community. The resort which featured a swimming pool, tennis courts, golf facilities, and entertainment events, was often headlined by Bates himself. The resort aimed to provide a welcoming space for people of color, particularly during a period when many other establishments were racially exclusive.
Adding to this, Whitaker in the book notes:
“By the mid-1960s, Bates was known to the broad public mostly for his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, where he tapped, jumped, and twirled on the wooden leg while mugging for a studio audience. But within Black America, Bates was also respected as a savvy businessman. “Peg,” as he was known, had purchased a former turkey farm in the town of Kerhonkson, New York, and transformed it into a resort where Blacks, too, could spend summer vacations lazing around an outdoor pool, stuffing themselves from dinner buffets, and laughing at the salty routines of comedians from the “Chitlin Circuit.”
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates is significant to Black History because he defied expectations and broke barriers for disabled individuals and Black Americans in the entertainment industry. Despite his prosthetic leg, he achieved recognition and success as a talented dancer and performer, showcasing his remarkable abilities on stages around the world. His determination, resilience, and contributions to Black business, entertainment and civil rights serve as an inspiring example of overcoming challenges and making a positive impact on society.
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Wow. Truly inspirational on so many levels! Thank you for this post, Diamond-Michael. You know, I think I saw him on Ed Sullivan when I was a child. I was born in the 60s, so I was quite young, and my memories of much that I saw on television in those days are dim, at best, but the name “Peg-Leg Bates” immediately rang a bell, and the video felt oddly familiar. (That’s not something you see every day!) Of course, I had no idea of Mr. Bates' business acumen, which would be noteworthy even today, but under the circumstances and at that point in time? His wealth of achievements are indeed extraordinary!
Had no idea. Thanks for sharing his accomplishments. Another inspirational post.