Sidney Poitier – Hollywood’s first Black leading man reflected the civil rights movement on screen

In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His guest, he said, was his "soul brother."

"He has carved out an indestructible place for himself in the annals of our nation's history," King told an audience of 2,000 delegates. "I consider him a friend. I consider him a great friend of humanity."

That man was Sidney Poitier.

Poitier, who died on January 7, 2021, at the age of 94, broke the mold of being a black actor in Hollywood. Before the 1950s, black movie characters generally depicted racist stereotypes such as lazy servants and fleshy mummies. Then came Poitier, who was the only black man to win consecutive leading roles in major films from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Like King, Poitier embodied the ideals of honor and integrity. He attracted not only the loyalty of African Americans, but also the goodwill of white liberals.

In his biography, titled "Sydney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon", I tried to capture his entire life, including his incredible rags-to-riches arc, his burning vitality on screen, his personal victories and failures. and includes their search. To live up to the values ​​set by his Bahamian parents. But to me the most fascinating aspect of Poitier's career was his political and racial symbolism. In many ways, his screen life is intertwined with the civil rights movement – ​​and with King himself.

Era of protest

In three separate columns in 1957, 1961 and 1962, a New York Daily News columnist named Dorothy Masters marveled that Poitier had the warmth and charisma of a minister. Poitier lent his name and resources to King's works, and he participated in such demonstrations as the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage and the 1963 March on Washington. In this age of sit-ins, freedom rides and mass marches, activists engaged in nonviolent sacrifice not only to expose racist oppression but also to win widespread sympathy for civil rights.

In the same vein, Poitier deliberately chose to portray characters who radiate goodness. They had decent values ​​and helped white characters, and they often sacrificed themselves. He earned his first star billing in 1958 in "The Defiant Ones", in which he played a racist runaway prisoner by handcuffs, played by Tony Curtis. Finally, with the series unbound, Poitier jumps off a train to be with his new white friend. Writer James Baldwin reported seeing the film on Broadway, where white audiences clapped with reassurance, their racial crime being subdued. When they saw it again in Harlem, the predominantly black audience members shouted "Get back on the train, you idiot!"

King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. That same year, Poitier won the Best Actor Oscar for "Lilies of the Field", in which he played Homer Smith, a traveling handyman who, in good faith, builds a chapel for German nuns. of his heart. The lovely, low budget film was a surprise hit. In its own way, like the horrific footage of water hoses and police dogs attacking civil rights activists, it fueled swelling support for racial integration.

A better man

By the time of the actor's speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Convention, both King and Poitier seemed to be slurring on the American public. Bloody and devastating riots plagued the nation's cities, reflecting the enduring discontent of many poor African Americans. The influx of "Black Power" challenged the ideals of nonviolence and racial fraternity – ideals associated with both King and Poitier.

When Poitier stepped into the lecture that evening, he lamented "greed, selfishness, indifference to the suffering of others, the corruption of our value system, and a moral degradation that had already scarred our souls irreparably Is." "On my bad days," he said, "I doubt the national death will."

By the late 1960s, both King and Poitier had reached a crossroads. Federal law was eliminating Jim Crow in the South, but African Americans still faced limited opportunity. Qing set out a "revolution of values", denounced the Vietnam War, and launched a poor people's campaign. Poitier said in his 1967 speech for the SCLC that King's adherence to his conviction for social justice and human dignity, "has made me a better person."

Extraordinary characters

Poitier tried to follow his own beliefs. As long as he was the only black leading man, he insisted on playing the same kind of hero. But in the era of Black Power, had Poitier's saintly hero become another stereotype? His anger was suppressed, his sexuality was suppressed. Writing in The New York Times, a black critic asked, "Why so why does White America love Sidney Poitier?"

That critic had a point: As Poitier himself knew, his films produced very perfect characters. While the films allowed white audiences to appreciate a black man, they also implied that racial equality hinged on such extraordinary characters, stripping away any racial baggage. From late 1967 to early 1968, three of Poitier's films topped the box office, and a poll ranked him the most bankable star in Hollywood.

Each film provided a protagonist who piqued the benevolent center. In "To Sir, With Love" his teacher subdues a section of teenage bullies in London's East End. In "In the Heat of the Night" his razor-sharp detective helps a white Southern sheriff solve a murder. In "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," his world-famous doctor marries a white woman, but only after winning her parents' blessing.

"I try to make films about the dignity, nobility, grandeur of human life," he insisted. Audiences flocked to his films as they transcended racial divisions and social despair—even as more African Americans, baby boomers, and film critics grew tired of the old-fashioned feel-good vibe of these films.

Interconnected life

And then, the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sidney Poitier intersected one last time. After King's assassination on April 4, 1968, Poitier was in favor of the ideal that King embodied. When he presented at the Academy Awards, Poitier won a massive ovation. "In the Heat of the Night" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" captured most of the major awards. Hollywood again confronted the nation's racial turmoil through Poitier films.

But after the violent assassination of the king, the Poitier icon no longer captured the national mood. In the 1970s, a generation of "blaxploitation" films featured violent, sexually charged heroes. They were a reaction against the image of a black prominent figure associated with Poitier. Although his career evolved, Poitier was no longer a superstar, and he no longer carried the burden of representing the black independence movement. Yet for a generation, they had served as popular culture's dominant expression of the ideals of Martin Luther King.