Ahh, how the times were a-changing. In contrast to some of those scathing anti-jitterbug articles from the 20s and 30s that I’ve already posted, here is an article from the 20th September 1943 edition of the New York Times (page 23):

Jitterbug Accepted as Ballroom Dance
New York Teachers Combine It with Lindy for Classes

History was made in ballroom dancing yesterday when the New York Society of Teachers of Dancing Inc, at its September meeting in the Hotel Astor, officially recognized and decided to teach the jitterbug as a pastime fitted to accompany waltz, tango and rumba on dance programs.

However, the jitterbug to be taught this fall and winter to the city’s ballroom classes will not be the jitterbug of the hepcats, Harlem sidewalks or high school fiestas. Brought under professional control and ballroom decorum, the refined movements are joined with the forerunner of the jitterbug, the Lindy, to form the Lindy-Jitterbug, which was demonstrated at yesterday’s meeting by Mrs. Oscar Duryea and Patrick J. Mastrolia.

A committee appointed to study the jitterbug and advise on its adaptability to the ballroom reported that youth was dancing the jitterbug and would continue to dance it, and the fact must be recognized. The teachers were reminded that youth, not dancing masters, decreed what should be danced and since the jitterbug in its essence was an expression of youth, the thing to do was to adapt it to the classroom and a ballroom routine. Therefore the committee put together what seemed to be the general basic steps of the jitterbug as danced by the youth of the metropolitan area.