Race abuse panto star hits back
Sheila Ferguson was heckled by someone sitting in the audience
Singer Sheila Ferguson who had racial abuse shouted at her during a pantomime has said she will evict the offender from the audience if it happens again.
The former Three Degrees star said she was proud to be one of the UK's first black fairy godmothers.
She said she was less upset than others after experiencing the Civil Rights movement. "That kind of exposure does not necessarily shock me," she said.
Kent Police are investigating the abuse during the preview show in Canterbury.
In an exclusive interview with BBC South East Today, Ms Ferguson said she knew there would be some people who would not like to see a black fairy godmother on stage in the Marlowe Theatre's production of Cinderella.
The reason it did not upset me as much as it seems to have upset a lot of people in this country is because I grew up through the Civil Rights movement
Ms Ferguson has since told her company manager that if it happens again she is stopping the show, having the house lights put on, evicting the person, and then going home.
She has been told she is within her rights to do so, but she said: "It is not about what is within my rights - it is about what I am going to do."
Ms Ferguson said that to heckle was "one thing".
But she said: "The second time it was 'who needs a black fairy godmother'. The third time is was 'go home ******' - I thought okay.
"The reason it did not upset me as much as it seems to have upset a lot of people in this country is because I grew up through the Civil Rights movement."
Veteran singers
But she said: "No-one has ever said that on stage to me before."
Ms Ferguson said the incident was not typical of England, but it was more typical of America.
"Lots of people want to shove racism under the carpet, but it is there," she said.
She said there was a lesson to be learned in why everybody had been so shocked.
And she said veteran black singers such as Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald had paved the way for her.
"They suffered racial abuse in the American south and north and east and west," she said.
"If they had not, it would not have led to me being asked to be the fairy godmother in a panto, and that makes me happy."
BBC
