pn835. Sidney Poitier, another Black Trailblazer Dies

Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)

"Poitier's rise mirrored profound changes in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. As racial attitudes evolved during the civil rights era and segregation laws were challenged and fell, Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious industry turned for stories of progress." The struggle by American Blacks is by no means over but it has been advanced over the past 100 years by many trailblazers, most notable of whom are  WEB Du Bois, socialist and co-founder of the National Association of Colored People in 1909, (1868-1963), singer and activist Paul Robeson  (1898-1976}, novelist James Baldwin (1924-1987),                                 Du Bois, Robeson, Baldwin (l-r) Black Muslim Malcolm x (1925-65), singer Harry Belafonte (1927- ), pastor and Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Snr (1899-1984), his son Martin Luther King Jr, born 1929, assassinated 1968,  and Sidney Poitier, actor, born 1927, who died last week aged 94.

Malcolm X, Harry Belafonte, Martin Luther King (l-r)

  For biographies on each of them, see the Wikipedia links at the end of this post. 

This is what 1News had to say about Poitier:

Poitier, winner of the best actor Oscar in 1964 for Lilies of the Field, died on Friday in the Bahamas, according to Eugene Torchon-Newry, acting director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas.

Few movie stars, Black or white, had such an influence both on and off the screen. 

Before Poitier, the son of Bahamian tomato farmers, no Black actor had a sustained career as a lead performer or could get a film produced based on his own star power. 

Before him, few Black actors were permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Before him, Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person's story.

He became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for the best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw. 

Messages honouring and mourning Poitier flooded social media, with Whoopi Goldberg writing on Twitter: "He showed us how to reach for the stars."

Tyler Perry on Instagram wrote: "The grace and class that this man has shown throughout his entire life, the example he set for me, not only as a Black man but as a human being will never be forgotten."

And musician Lenny Kravitz wrote that Poitier "showed the world that with vision and grace, all is possible". 

Poitier's rise mirrored profound changes in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. As racial attitudes evolved during the civil rights era and segregation laws were challenged and fell, Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious industry turned for stories of progress.

Wikipedia links

WEB DuBois      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois

Paul Robeson      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson

James Baldwin    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin

Malcolm x           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X

Sidney Poitier      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier

Harry Belafonte   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte

Martin Luther King Jr  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr