June 2, 1956, was the night that the Santa Cruz Police Department decided to ban rock and roll music, after Chuck Higgins’ concert in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.
During the concert, about 200 teenagers were dancing to a song called “Pachuko Hop” by Chuck Higgins and His Orchestra, the local police walked into the building and thought that the dancing was too wild and improper, so they decided to stop the concert 40 minutes early. Lieutenant Richard Overton from the Santa Cruz Police Department wrote in his official police report that the music “excited the crowd to passion at times and it was feared the crowd might become uncontrollable”.
The next day, June 3, Santa Cruz Police Chief Al Huntsman took things even a step further. He announced a total ban on rock and roll music at all public gatherings. City officials released a statement calling the new musical genre “detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth and community.”
By June 5, newspapers and radio stations across the United States shared the news. Teenagers in Santa Cruz quickly protested the decision. Many people also pointed out the underlying racism of the ban, as the music was heavily rooted in African American culture and performed by a Black band.
The ban did not last long because Santa Cruz was a beach town and banning music could affect the tourism there. So the City Manager Robert Klein lifted the ban, saying that there was no real ban on music, only on wild dancing.
Many other cities put similar bans that month for the same reason.
After the Santa Cruz concert, another rock and roll concert was held at the Asbury Park Convention Hall. People started dancing and some teenagers got into a fight on the dance floor. Security guards couldn’t stop the fight, and the concert had to be stopped.
As a response, Asbury Park Mayor Roland J. Hines announced that rock and roll was a threat to public safety and banned the genre from being played at public venues within the city.
These bans didn’t last long, they faded away when concerts started happening again, and concert halls were regularly hosting massive rock acts.
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