"The Radio City Rockettes are as American as baseball, hot dogs, and the Fourth of July. Their legendary synchronized kicks, precise lines, and megawatt smiles have charmed audiences for a century. But there is a hidden side to this illustrious national institution. When the Rockettes began in 1925, Black people were not allowed to dance on stage with white people. In 1987, the sixty-three-year color barrier at Radio City was finally broken by one brave and tenacious woman: Jennifer Jones. But after she overcame seemingly impossible odds to join the line of the Rockettes, a public relations director summoned the Black dancer to her hotel room and announced, 'Nobody cares about you... You should consider yourself lucky to even be here.' Those words would haunt this shy, insecure biracial woman, who had always felt like an outsider. Becoming Spectacular allows us to walk in Jones's tap shoes ... Bringing into focus the life of a trailblazer, this searing memoir is also a ... celebration of a spirit who refused to be counted out"-- Dust jacket flap.
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