Paul McCartney says The Beatles angrily turned down segregated gig in 1964

Paul McCartney has shared a post celebrating Black Lives Matter, which reveals that The Beatles angrily refused to perform in front of a segregated audience in 1964.

The musician praised the protests and demonstrations taking place across the world following the killing of George Floyd while in custody of white police officers in Minneapolis..

“We all need to work together to overcome racism in any form,” he wrote in a statement on Twitter. “We need to learn more, listen more, talk more, educate ourselves and, above all, take action.”

McCartney, 77, then revealed that, in 1964, he and fellow bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr refused to play a gig in Jacksonville after discovering “it was going to be a segregated audience”.

“It felt wrong,” he wrote. “We said ‘We’re not doing that!’”.

The gig ended up being the first to take place in Jacksonville with a non-segregated crowd, following which the group ”made sure this was in our contract”.

“To us it seemed like common sense,” McCartney added.

“I feel sick and angry that here we are almost 60 years later and the world is in shock at the horrific scenes of the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of police racism, along with the countless others that came before,” he said.

“All of us here support and stand alongside all those who are protesting and raising their voices at this time.

Washington demonstrators are gathering for what is expected to be the largest protest against police brutality in the city since the killing of Mr Floyd in Minneapolis.

Army secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters on Friday that local officials were projecting between 100,000 and 200,000 protesters on Saturday.

Following an incident on Friday (5 June), which saw a 75-year-old man pushed to the ground during a Black Lives Matter protest, two members of the Buffalo Police department were suspended.

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