Sidney Poitier Piece of the Action Uptown Saturday Let s Do It Again

by Nisa Islam Muhammad and Tariqah Muhammad

"There is a certain anger; it reaches such intensity that to express it fully would require homicidal rage—self-destructive, destroy-the-world rage—and its flame burns because the earth is so unjust." ―Sidney Poitier from his memoir, "The Measure of a Human being"

Amid a very unjust world, Sidney Poitier was born and blossomed into a man dedicated to his art and activism. For decades audiences beheld the class, dignity and poise he exuded on screen. Mr. Poitier was the first Black homo to win an Oscar for All-time Role player for "Lilies of the Field" in 1964.  He was nominated for the same honor in 1959 for the movie "The Defiant Ones."  His elegant performances in the movie manufacture inspired and paved the way for later generations of Black actors. Mr. Poitier passed abroad January 6. He was 94 years quondam.

His other stellar accomplishments in Hollywood and beyond include starring in such classics as "A Raisin in the Sun," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Porgy and Bess," and "To Sir With Love."

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"Sidney Portier was an intelligent, dignified, Black man. On the surface where Black people are pictured as thieves, or buffoons, he really stood upwards for us.  He provided an image of someone who was intelligent, thoughtful, potent, someone that people could look up to," Luci Spud, a Washington, D.C., artist and activist told The Final Call.

Chicago filmmaker Marker Harris said Mr. Poitier's integrity on-screen was an inspiration to Black men in full general. "To me as a filmmaker, I remember "Lilies of the Field" as a young man watching it. That's one of the movies that actually touched me," he told The Terminal Telephone call.

"What I enjoyed most almost him was the fact that the movies that he partnered with Bill Cosby to make, those movies inspired me. He inspired me as a Black human being in general." In the mid-1970s Mr. Poitier and Mr. Cosby starred in iii blaxploitation crime comedies, "Uptown Sabbatum Night," "Let's Practise It Once again" and "A Piece of the Action," all of which were directed past Mr. Poitier.

"His legacy in pic, he had and then much dignity and pride. His legacy will live on forever," said Mr. Harris.

Sidney Poitier'southward career started in 1949 with small parts that increased in the 1950'south; only before he could actually take off with White liberal filmmakers, he was confronted with Senator Joseph McCarthy's Anti-Communist campaign.

"Before I had learned plenty about politics to get a fix on McCarthy, I constitute myself victimized by the indiscriminate gusts from his demagoguery. With a long arm that was never gear up to help just always ready to hurt, the Senator smeared and paralyzed much of the surface area I had past now called to spend my life in. Before I could understand any of it, I was blacklisted. I wasn't able to work." Mr. Poitier explains in his 1980 autobiography "This Life."

"I couldn't really say for certain whether it was a blacklist or my Black face up that was keeping me out of work."

This experience impacted him and the way he viewed the earth.  When McCarthy'southward tirade was over, Mr. Poitier was allowed to work over again.  He performed with celebrities like Harry Belafonte who became a best friend and oftentimes co-star in movies similar "Buck and the Preacher," and "Uptown Saturday Night."  During the 1960'south they bonded as ceremonious rights activists.

In 1964, Mr. Belafonte received a frantic call from Pupil Nonviolent Commission (SNCC) leader James Forman.  The group would run out of coin within the adjacent 72 hours.  Mr. Belafonte raised $70,000 in two days.  The only fashion to deliver the coin was in person.

He and Mr. Poitier took the coin stuffed into a doctor's purse to Freedom Summer volunteers in Greenwood, Miss.  SNCC field secretary Willie Blue picked them upward.  Nonetheless, they were ambushed past the Klan, who with guns blazing, used a pickup truck to try to run them off the road.

Mr. Poitier's activism too took him and Mr. Belafonte to the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s delivered the celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech communication. In 1967, Dr. King said of Mr. Poitier, "He is a homo of not bad depth, a homo of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom."

While Mr. Poitier was dedicated to homo rights and freedom, his strong presence on moving picture and in all he achieved did then much more.

Mr. Belafonte said of Mr. Poitier, "I don't remember anyone [else] in the world could have been anointed with the responsibility of creating a whole new image of Blackness people, and especially Blackness men."

That new image of Blackness men was seen in the 1967 moving picture "In the Oestrus of the Night" where he played  police detective Virgil Tibbs. Mr. Poitier delivers a classic line to the sheriff in the movie who refuses to address him properly. With dignity, determination and defiance, Mr. Poitier, playing police detective Virgil Tibbs, says, "They phone call me Mr. Tibbs!" That same film contains another iconic scene when a wealthy White man slaps Mr. Poitier's character and he slaps him dorsum. To date, the clip earned over 300k views on YouTube nether the championship, "the slap heard round the earth."

Mr. Poitier's other archetype films include, "Cry the Dearest State," "The Blackboard Jungle," "Paris Dejection," "The Defiant Ones," and "Patch of Blue."  He received the Cecil B. DeMille honour at the Golden Globes in 1982, the AFI (American Film Institute) Lifetime Achievement prize in 1992, the Kennedy Centre Honors in 1995, the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Life Achievement Award in 1999 and the Presidential Medal of Liberty in 2009, from President Barack Obama.

Producer and founder of Mahdi Theatre Margaret Mahdi told The Final Call that Mr. Poitier's roles challenged the notion of Black men as "coons" and junior to their White counterparts.

"We are immensely grateful to Allah that He has gifted us with corking ones who have shown the world how to express God's talents and gifts in a supremely noble mode," she said. "To me, Mr. Poitier represented wholesomeness, course and dignity in his graphic symbol portrayals," added Ms. Mahdi.

 "His confidence and pride in beingness a dark-skinned Black man exuded throughout his portrayals. Nosotros didn't meet an inferior complexed Blackness man in any of his films. Nosotros witnessed a Black man that celebrated his Black. His acting was also superior. We felt his passionate portrayals because he gave soul and life through all his characters," she said.

"He was to Hollywood what Jackie Robinson was to baseball," said the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC. "He broke the color barrier at the tiptop level. The first Black to win an Oscar for acting. And I think that this country, this world and certainly the world of movie house could never pay the debt that is owed to Sidney Poitier."

Built-in to Bahamian parents March 27, 1927, Mr. Poitier could trace his family back to his great, not bad-great grandparents March Poitier and Emily Evans. He is survived by his married woman Joanna Shimkus and his children, Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Pamela Poitier, Sherri Poitier, Gina Poitier, Anika Poitier and Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

Social media was flooded with sentiments expressed past those whose lives Mr. Poitier touched. Mr. Obama wrote on Facebook, "Through his groundbreaking roles and atypical talent, Sidney Poitier epitomized dignity and grace, revealing the ability of movies to bring us closer together. He also opened doors for a generation of actors. Michelle and I transport our dearest to his family and legion of fans."

Thespian Martin Lawrence wrote, "This one hits difficult. My prayers and condolences go out to the family of the iconic and trailblazing Sidney Poitier."

"Luckily Poitier was at that place to evidence me that Blackness is beautiful & that I didn't need to aspire towards being anyone only myself," wrote Juan Michael Porter II on Twitter.

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Source: https://new.finalcall.com/2022/01/12/sidney-poitier-a-life-of-art-and-activism/

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