Woodstock Question

[sheltiedave]

There weren't too many black kids at Woodstock, for a variety of reasons. Even tho the concert both opened(Richie Havens) and closed(Jimi Hendrix) with black music acts, there wasn't much in between that would draw tons of folks from New York. And New York and the near east coast were the only major spontaneous geographical draw for Woodstock.

Also, 1969 was not a time for black hippies. Being a hippie meant wanting to tune out and drop out from conventional square society, and for the most part, black kids were too busy trying to get a toehold inside the door of opportunity. If you didn't come from success, there was little reason to "drop out" when you had little to start with.

Third, upstate New York was not a nirvana for black kids. Few were willing to count on the willingness of segregationist America to provide food and water for them for a lost weekend. Minorities knew they would be hassled at every turn, so they were not willing to go to an underadvertised musical exposition with no food, little water, and no money for half a week. White kids could afford to be naive and count on help from strangers.

It would have been a far more attended event had half the acts been Motown artists.