Sidney Poitier rarely spoke of that dark night in Mississippi | Opinon
Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. He was 94.
The Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964 is best known for the murder of three civil rights activists, Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner and James Chaney, but the government-sanctioned brutal treatment of the men and women seeking the right to vote for all people was a fact of life for every participant.
Belafonte concocted a desperate plan and contacted Poitier — whom he called “his brother” — and Poitier agreed to accompany him to Mississippi. The two men flew from Newark to Jackson, where they were met by Forman and SNCC volunteer Willie Blue, to deliver the money to Greenwood., “I’d never seen a night as black as this.” Somehow, the Klan and other racist groups found out.
It was a nightmarish scene, with Belafonte and Poitier never knowing if the next truck that pulled even with them would point a shotgun out of the passenger-side window. Numerous shots were fired at the cars in the small procession, but none somehow struck Poitier and Belafonte’s vehicle. Finally, Poitier spoke: “I am thirty-seven years old. I have been a lonely man all my life ... because I have not found love ... but this room is overflowing with it.”
At last Poitier and Belafonte slipped out to a small house nearby where they shared a single double bed that had been shoved under a window. A few armed SNCC members positioned themselves outside. Within minutes, a convoy of idling vehicles, each full of Ku Klux Klan members, filled the streets surrounding the house and remained throughout the long night.
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