Stars for Freedom by Emilie Raymond

Author:Emilie Raymond [Raymond, Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780295806075
Google: GxA1CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2015-06-08T04:07:16+00:00

6

Stars for Selma

The march was almost over, and the marchers were ready for a good laugh. I tried to give it to them: “I read in the paper a week ago where Sheriff Jim Clark said, ‘They’ll make that march to Montgomery over my dead body!’ And I thought that wouldn’t be a bad route.”

—Dick Gregory

WITH THE LEADING SIX AT THE FOREFRONT, AN OUTPOURING OF celebrity civil rights supporters backed the 1965 Selma, Alabama, campaign for voting rights. Harry Belafonte made arrangements for scores of stars to assemble in Montgomery to join marchers on the historic trek from Selma. Sammy Davis, Jr., broke fund-raising records in the march’s aftermath with his biggest benefit yet. Meanwhile, the Leading Six continued to pursue stage roles, television work, and nightclub engagements, and to live primarily on the East Coast, indicating that they still did not feel comfortable in Hollywood, largely as a result of their continued struggles for film roles. The schedules and residential patterns of the Leading Six shaped the fund-raising arms of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during this period. SNCC focused on its New York “friends” office, and the SCLC seemingly depended on Belafonte and Davis’s participation for benefits. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) returned to focusing primarily on its grassroots fund-raising drives and recruited Davis to lead a massive membership drive. Such collaboration reflected the stars’ importance in the Northern liberal network, yet the paradoxes of celebrity activism also became apparent. While Selma proved to be the high point of celebrity activism, it was the point at which the stars’ involvement in the movement became more closely scrutinized by friends and foes alike.

* * *

Although film and television stars had proven their willingness to publicly embrace the civil rights movement, Hollywood continued to be a challenging industry for African American actors. During a series of congressional hearings regarding discrimination in the performing arts in 1962, Sidney Poitier testified, “I’m probably the only Negro actor who makes a living in the motion picture industry, which employs thirteen thousand performers. It’s no joy to me to be a symbol.”1 Poitier did not exaggerate. Opportunities for black actors in film had actually dwindled after 1960. The “message movie” had largely been exhausted, and few studios hired blacks in leading roles except for “racial dramas.” Most of the leading black stars from the previous decade found fewer film opportunities in the early 1960s. The only films Sammy Davis, Jr., did during this period were two mediocre Rat Pack projects, The Sergeants 3 (1962) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), and the independent drama Convicts 4 (1962), in all of which he played supporting roles. Belafonte’s banishment continued. Dorothy Dandridge completed her last film in 1962. Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Diahann Carroll also found intermittent work in supporting roles but not frequently enough to support themselves on such work alone.

The television industry provided little alternative, as neither the quality nor quantity of TV roles had expanded since the 1950s.

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