Why dancing on Sundays used to be banned in Fort Smith

FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Fort Smith has officially been Footloose for the last six years but what took so long?

In 1953, Fort Smith Mayor H.R. Hestand banned dancing on Sundays by signing an emergency clause that said “dancing greatly endangers the public health, safety and welfare,” according to the Associated Press.

The ordinance also forced dancing halls or any place that allowed dancing to be closed on Sundays. It was called the “Footloose” ordinance among those who knew about it.

65 years later, a Facebook friend of City Director Andre Good brought the law to his attention. Good said, “If you don’t care to dance on Sunday, that’s fine. We should all respect that. But let’s not impose some outdated, outmoded morality code on all our fine fellow citizens,” according to Talk Business & Politics.

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The ordinance was not the only law that may seem outdated in 2018 (or 2024). A slew of blue laws, or Sunday-closing laws, were enacted as far back as 1837. The laws would make normal activities such as card games, hunting, horse racing, and baseball illegal on Sundays, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Good said the dancing ordinance sends a message to those interested in visiting Fort Smith “and not a good one.”

“It says: ‘Entering Fort Smith; traveling back in time,’” Good said.

City spokeswoman told the AP that no one had been arrested or ticketed for breaking the law in nearly two decades. The ordinance says that if someone were to violate the law, they would be fined “not less than” $25 (or $284 in 2023).

The ordinance was repealed in July 2018 and Fort Smithians are now free to dance on Sundays.

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