GUESS WHOSE BIRTHDAY IT IS

Gadfly Today Series

Of all the people to champion liberty in the face of disgusting bigotry, Sidney Poitier might have been the most diplomatic. In fact, besides being a legendary actor and director, Sidney was actually a diplomat as well in the long arc of his historic life and career. Although, when he was born in Miami, Florida, on February 20th, 1927, people could not have imagined the legacy he would leave printed across the generations he spanned.

His beautiful star rose on the back of his prodigious talent and extraordinarily hard work. Due to his Bahamian ancestry and upbringing, he struggled to make it in the theatre industry at first because of his accent. Refusing to accept this barrier, he worked to remove it. Then, he found success in feature films like The Defiant Ones and A Raisin in the Sun. This led to other, more groundbreaking cinematic releases including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and To Sir, with Love.

When you probe the themes and storylines in his later films, including the trio above which were all released in the same year (1967), it shows that his contribution to the American landscape went far beyond his professional and artistic endeavors. Sidney Poitier strove for equality as much as success and for a long time before he found any fame at all. He jumped headlong into the struggle for civil rights in the United States and early on in the battle.

After growing up in the Jim Crow South, he could not stomach the entrenched racism and apathetic conservatism latent in the professional world he entered. From those experiences, he cofounded an organization known as the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA). It articulated racial and class critiques of the country. Sidney also maintained several relationships with prominent left-leaning public figures. This was all too much for the powers that be. They blacklisted him.

Undeterred, Mr. Poitier pursued a life in activism and acting despite the professional setbacks that the pair caused him. He marched on Washington. He funded the Mississippi Freedom Summer. He withstood attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. He persevered in the face of economic ruin, physical destruction, and social castigation.

In an era where every post must be poll-tested to get more clicks. Every communication must be vetted to avoid the wrath of cancel culture. We must admire a man who literally marched through society with nothing but his conscience to guide him. We should cherish a man of such conviction, especially on his birthday.

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