Jonathan Butler Used Music to Cross Color Lines in Apartheid South Africa

'Jonathan Butler was the first Black artist to be prominently featured on White radio during apartheid in South Africa. In a new interview with EBONY, the musician details his life at the time of the achievement, saying that while it was a proud moment that brought about notoriety, he still lived in a “shack” and faced discrimination on a regular basis. “Every establishment I played in was ‘Whites Only,’ ‘Blacks Only,’ Colored Only,’ ‘Indian Only.’ When I won the Grammy in South Africa, it was blacked out from the radio, it was blacked out from the media, it was blacked out from television.” “Being famous and having gold records and a Grammy, but you still have to go live in your shack in your segregated townships…it started to affect me in ways I didn’t even realize”.' -- EBONY Magazine