Peg Leg Bates

Peg Leg Bates Resort Project:
A Virtual Viewing of Dancing Man
November 16, 2022
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Peg Leg Bates Resort: The Legacy of a Black Resort in the Catskills.

A young boy in South Carolina, the son of sharecroppers, loses his leg on the second day of his first job. He was twelve years old. This so easily could have been the end of his story, but not for Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates, it was the beginning of a hero’s journey that would take him from South Carolina, around the world, and finally to Kerhonkson, New York, to open a resort catering to Black people. Encyclopedia.com has this header for the listing on Peg Leg Bates: “Peg Leg Bates 1907 - Tap Dancer, Lost His Leg, Became A Star, Opened Black Resort." A great summation and the accompanying article only fills in a few of the lines in between.

Over the years there have been many articles in mainstream publications, anthologies, scholarly works about Black entertainment in America, and a documentary called "Dancing Man", that largely focuses on Bates' dancing career, the resort, and his humanitarian efforts in the community. There is no comprehensive work that ties all of these parts together within the context of the larger issues of his time such as Jim Crow, the Green Book, civil rights, and the Catskill experience that was the Peg Leg Resort.

The Folk Arts Program at Arts Mid-Hudson along with the Ulster County historian, the Public History Initiative Program at Cornell University, the documentarian who produced "Dancing Man", and community scholars seek to gather oral histories from family members, former performers, and workers at the resort, as well as people who frequented the resort as guests during its heyday. During his time in Kerhonkson (and elsewhere), Bates also made a point of lending his talents to local fundraising efforts and he spoke to schools, community organizations, veterans, and those with disabilities about his trials and triumphs. 

The goals are to highlight the work and legacy of Bates for future audiences as a Black man in a White world of entertainment, business, and the predominantly White, Jewish, and Christian resorts of the Catskills (Dirty Dancing and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel notwithstanding). He negotiates all three successfully in a time in the United States when it was hard enough in one of those arenas. To place Bates and the Resort within the context and history of the Catskills Resorts. To focus on the experience of spending time at the resort from the point of view of the employees and the visitors

Funds from Humanities NY