Outstanding Afrio-American Man – Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was to Hollywood what Jackie Robison was to major league baseball: simply put, the man who broke the color barrier. For 20 years, beginning in the early 1950s, he was the top and virtually sole African-American film star-the first black actor to become a hero to win a prestigious international film award, the first to become the number one box office star in the country, and the first to insist on a film crew that was at least 50 percent African-American.

When he was 16, he arrived in New York City, totally alone, with three dollars in his pocket. In order to escape the cold he lied about his age and joined the army, serving in World War II as a medical assistant. Handsome and athletic, Poitier made his Broadway debut in 1946 in an all-black production of Lysistrata, and moved into films four years later with No Way Out. His impressive turn in 1955’s gritty The Blackboard Jungle brought him closer to stardom, and in 1958 he earned his first Academy Award nomination opposite Tony Curtis in Stanley Kramer’s social drama The Defiant Ones.

Poitier was appointed a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1974, which entitles him to use the title “Sir”, though he chooses not to do so. He holds a dual diplomatic appointment, serving as the Ambassador to Japan and Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO); both posts representing the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Poitier was often cast in acting roles that dealt with issues of race. More often than not he played the role of a black person who was perfect, in a crusade against the morally corrupt white people.

With his unique career, a career he forged without any precedent or model, Sidney Poitier helped change many stubborn racial attitudes that had persisted in this country for centuries. He has built the bridges and opened the doors for countless artists in succeeding generations. He is an actor who stood for hope, for excellence, and who has given happiness to millions of people around the world.

Paying tribute to Sidney Poitier in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom. Here is a man who, in the words we so often hear now, is a soul brother.”