A Man Among Men

 

My mom loved Sidney Poitier.

When he died on January 6 – just 4 days before the anniversary of her passing on January 10 (tomorrow) – I felt crushed. He had brought her such joy, and I got to see it whenever we watched his movies, especially two of our favorites: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “To Sir, With Love.”

To my mom, he was extraordinary: the first Black man to land leading roles in the notoriously segregated Hollywood and the first Black performer to win an Academy Award for lead actor for his amazing work in “Lilies of the Field,” among numerous other incredible achievements.

His career, which spanned some six decades, paved the way for other Blacks to step into major roles, transformed how Blacks were portrayed in film, inspired dreams which could actually come true and greatly impacted the world.

My mom appreciated that he was a terrific actor, a trailblazer, a fighter for civil rights, a man who seemed so incredibly decent at his core and dare I say it...Sidney Poitier had an extremely charismatic presence. I was captivated by him as well.  

The night after he died, David and I decided to watch “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” once again. This movie, released in 1967, is about a white 23-year-old woman named Joanna “Joey” Drayton (played by Katherine Houghton, Katherine Hepburn’s niece), when she brings a Black doctor named Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poitier) home to meet her parents after they become engaged, just 10 days after they had met.  

Joey’s parents, Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his wife Christina (Katherine Hepburn), are well-to-do liberals who pride themselves on their progressive, enlightened thinking. However, their ideals are challenged when they learn that their daughter is planning to marry a Black man.

What started as a brief meeting between John and Joanna’s parents turned into a dinner event with John’s parents too, played by Roy E. Glenn, Sr. and Beah Richards, who are equally uncomfortable with the marriage. The Draytons’ Black housekeeper, Tillie, played by Isabell Sanford – the amazing Louise Jefferson in “The Jeffersons” – also expressed her objection to the decision of the interracial couple to marry. The only person in attendance celebrating the union from the onset other than the lovebirds themselves is the monsignor, the Draytons’ good friend.

When my mom and I went to the movie theatre when it came out in 1967, I was just 7 years old; watching it again with her at home, maybe I was 10 or 15. I can recall her explaining to me the racial issues that plagued the country, and I knew that she and my dad as community leaders fought segregation in our neighborhood, in schools and everywhere they could, so it wasn’t a new topic for me, but it sure was one I didn’t understand. It made no sense to me why people would discriminate against one another simply because of the color of their skin. 

Watching Sidney Poitier movies was absolutely one of the best memories I have of spending time with my mom, and the fact that she was so moved by him made him inherently special to me, too.