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Editor’s note: This article was first published on Medium in 2021, updated on April 25, 2023, and reposted here with revisions…2/6/25, 2/8/25.
Note hyperlinks had to be removed because of a strange Page Not Found tech issue.
Reading time: 9 min
The iconic entertainer and activist, Mr. Harry Belafonte inspired me to update this article with incidents many may not know.
In general, there is nothing funny about racism but fact-checking Mr. Belafonte’s history last year, and how he handled some race-based issues caused me to laugh out loud.
- A landlord refused Mr. Belafonte a dwelling in New York in the 1950s, so he sent his White publicist as a stand-in. But the landlord was adamant he would not permit Mr. Belafonte’s residence.
No problem. No problem at all. According to an ABC News report, …Mr. Belafonte bought the building. This makes sense; by age 32, he had become the highest-paid Black performer in history. (Andrew Jazprose Hill)
When asked to present at The Kennedy Center Awards in 2013, as an American citizen born to immigrant parents, Mr. Belafonte used his appearance to address the political hot-button immigration issue. A link to the memorable speech appears in the sources list.
In some cases, the treatment some famous people of color have encountered could be classified as stranger than fiction.
At least two of the following stories can be classified as downright weird. In another instance, little-known applies to the backstory of a famous scene in an Oscar-winning movie.
2. In October 1963, in Shreveport, Louisiana, legendary singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur Sam Cooke, his wife, and his band were denied lodging despite having made reservations with a famous chain hotel — unfortunately, a hotel with a segregation policy.
At the time, the popular crossover artist was in second place on the charts behind Elvis Presley in record sales (PBS). Incensed, Cooke argued with the hotel staff, and the management called the police. Cooke and some of his band members were arrested and jailed for disturbing the peace (NPR).
Within eight weeks of the hotel incident, Cooke wrote a song that became a civil rights anthem: “A Change is Gonna Come.”
3. Barbara Elaine Smith, known professionally as B. Smith, the nationally known lifestyle expert, celebrity chef, and restaurateur went on to fame with her brand’s motto, “Whatever you do, do it with style.”
As a high-school teen, Smith displayed her unique style when confronted by racism.
Smith excelled as a home economics student, but because of her race, she was denied membership to a national student organization known as the Future Homemakers of America.
No problem.
Smith started a home economics club and appointed herself president. (Pittsburgh-Post Gazette)
4. In the 1960s and 1970s, an iconic baseball player and humanitarian played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His name was Mr. Roberto Clemente, and he was to Latin American culture what Mr. Jackie Robinson was to African American culture.
Originally born in Puerto Rico, Clemente had a thick accent, and the American press wanted Clemente to anglicize his name, so they began calling him Bob, Robert, and Bobby. But Clemente refused those nicknames and never backed down.
My name is Roberto, Clemente said. (Librarian, Roger O. Green)
After Clemente’s posthumous induction into baseball’s National Hall of Fame, in the 1970s, it took another twenty-seven years to change the name on his plaque. You see, it contained an error in his surname, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
5. In 2007, Rissi Palmer became the first African American woman to land a hit on the country chart in twenty years.
Country music has roots in early Black American music. But there is very little diversity and women of color have long been excluded. Since the 1920s, only four solo female African American acts and one all-female African American group have made it onto the country music chart, reports Indy Week.
An independent artist and businesswoman, Palmer used Kick-Starter to fund her Back Porch album.
Palmer has performed at the White House, The Grand Ole Opry, and other prestigious venues. Many news organizations and publications, including CBS News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Time have interviewed Palmer.
So, Palmer’s CBS News account of what she experienced at one of her concerts is confounding.
“I’ve been turned away at my shows. A security guard wasn’t gonna let me get on because he was like, ‘Who are you?’ — Rissi Palmer.
To push for change in the country music niche, Palmer started an Apple Music radio show, “Color Me Country.” The mission is to recognize contemporary and historical Black and Brown women in country music. And Palmer has also started a grant program for struggling musicians in a tough industry.
“I’m also doing this as a notice to the industry,” she says. “If little me in Durham, NC, who uses the same internet, social media, and streaming services as everyone else, can find and help these artists from my tiny platform, why can’t you?” (Indy Week)
6. Lionel Hampton
The popular jazz/swing orchestra leader, philanthropist, and social activist was a household name in the 1930s and 1940s and renowned internationally.
He performed in one of the first integrated musical groups.
One night, in 1945, while playing at a venue in Kansas, Mr. Lionel Hampton invited two male guests to hear the band.
The men paid for their tickets but because of a segregation policy, the two negro men (pewresearch.org) were denied entry.
During the confrontation, a police officer beat one of the men on the head with a revolver. The man attacked by police was Hampton’s friend orchestra leader Cab Calloway.
When Mr. Hampton received word of the attack, he ordered management to refund 1500 tickets to the audience immediately because the band would not continue playing.
7. Mr. Sidney Poitier
Many people had no idea he slept with a weapon during the filming of In the Heat of the Night.
Nor would it occur to many, me included, that a movie scene written in the 1960s in which a White plantation owner slaps a Black police officer who slaps him back… could not have been the brainchild of a European Hollywood screenwriter.
Who then? It was the ultimate pushback. ”A slap heard Round the world.” (Medium article comment).
Sidney Poitier’s Other Talent: And why it cost him an Oscar nomination…
Note: excerpt printed below.
Thank you for reading.
Sources
Why Harry Belafonte Broke Through the Race Barrier
When Others Could Not
https://aninjusticemag.com/why-harry-belafonte-mattered-327b99749b58
Did Santana and Immigration Law Block Harry Belafonte’s Success?
Sam Cooke And The Song That ‘Almost Scared Him
Fifty years ago this week, Sam Cooke strolled into a recording studio, put on a pair of headphones, and laid down the…
www.npr.org
B. Smith’s career takes another turn — cookbook author
Growing up in Scottdale, Westmoreland County, B. Smith was denied membership in the Future Homemakers of America.
www.post-gazette.com
Bob Clemente? Roberto Clemente Walker! – Ramblin’ with Roger
One of those arcane pieces of information is about the great baseball player Roberto Clemente.
www.rogerogreen.com
Roberto Clemente | Biography, Stats, & Facts
Roberto Clemente, in full Roberto Clemente Walker, (born August 18, 1934, Carolina, Puerto Rico-died December 31, 1972…
www.britannica.com
Roberto Clemente
“He played a kind of baseball that none of us had ever seen before… As if it were a form of punishment for everyone…
Baseball hall.greatest greatest
Greatest Forgotten Home Run of All Time – Ramblin’ with Roger
The Greatest Forgotten Home Run of All Time took place on July 25, 1956, with the Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates.
www.rogerogreen.com
Country music’s reckoning: Black women forge their path in the whitewashed industry
Rissi Palmer was fed up with reading music articles that mentioned the same five country artists of color over and over…
www.nbcnews.com
Country Star Rissi Palmer On Supporting the Next Generation of Black Country Music Artists
It’s been a hell of a year for Rissi Palmer. On top of the release of her groundbreaking Apple Music radio show, Color…
indyweek.com
Vince Gill, Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd, and Rissi Palmer open up about the state of country music.
The “CBS This Morning” series “Unifying America” highlights people who are trying to cross the racial and cultural…
www.cbsnews.com
DownBeat Magazine
When Lionel Hampton and Red Skelton got together at the Riviera Hotel where they were both entertaining, things began…
web.archive.org
CLUBS CAB CALLOWAY | The Kansas City Star
DATE OF EVENT: Saturday, Dec. 22, 1945
DATE PUBLISHED: Sunday, Dec. 23, 1945, in The Kansas City Star
Instagram/ Cab Calloway
https://www.instagram.com/cabcalloway/p/C1KayZVpiMX/
Sidney Poitier’s Other Talent: And why it cost him an Oscar nomination by Dee Adams. Medium, January 15, 2022.
According to American Masters, Sidney Poitier would only take roles that showed Black actors and characters in a positive non-stereotypical light.
When I first saw the 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night on TV in the 1980s. Clueless, I was about how widespread the racism depicted in the movie mirrored the experience the star, production staff, and film crew endured during filming. (Hollywood Reporter)
As for that famous scene, the one that stunned theatergoers in 1967, it was a significant script rewrite and the brainchild of Mr. Poitier. It concerned the visit by Detective Tibbs to the town’s cotton plantation owner.
The original script called for Detective Tibbs to be slapped and to react only with controlled verbal outrage of a biblical nature.
Message to the movie studio
“ If he slaps me, I’m going to slap him back. You will put on paper that the studio agrees that the film will be shown nowhere in the world, with me standing there taking the slap.’’ — Sidney Poitier (CBS News)
The studio feared the return slap would cause race riots, so the movie almost was never filmed. But the producers fought to keep the scene in the film. (HuffPost)
Had it not been for Poitier’s business skill… that the scene was part of the studio contract, the return slap would have ended up on the cutting room floor in many cases (almost all?)…OK, all.
Arguably, the inclusion of that scene meant there was no chance Sidney Poitier would ever receive one of the five Oscar nominations for the film… which he did not.
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