Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers

Miscegenation -- the mixing of different racial groups -- was such a scary prospect back in the '50s that the very act of Doo Wop singer Frankie Lymon, of Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers fame, dancing with a white girl on Alan Freed's Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party was enough to get the entire show canceled by CBS in 1955.

And the attempts to protect swooning white girls from any and all exposure to black music didn't stop there. A year later, members of the White Citizens Council in the racially charged Birmingham, Alabama stormed the stage at a local Nat King Cole concert because they didn't like the way that the town's teenagers were reacting to his music. Afraid that he was one of those dangerous new R&B stars, they beat the legendary singer.