The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
KINDRED SPIRITS
A pioneer himself, Poitier watched Barack Obama’s historic rise with pride, hope and trepidation
In 2007 or ’08, when Barack Obama was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sidney Poitier was watching the process with a mixture of hope and anxiety. Poitier was following Obama not just as a voter and a Black man, but as someone aware of the pressures — and dangers — of being a “first.” Poitier, born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, was worried about the young senator from Illinois.
That concern surfaced at a dinner with friends, producer Mike Medavoy and his wife, Irena, and record executive Berry Gordy. “I brought up that I think that Obama could really win. He could make a difference here, and how exciting it was and how wonderful,” says Irena. “Sidney said, ‘I’m scared for him. I don’t want him to run, because I don’t want anything to happen to him, because that’s where I come from.’ ”
Poitier, whose work in movies like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and A Raisin in the Sun often reflected the civil rights movement unfolding offscreen, had attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963 and King’s funeral in 1968, donated to civil rights causes and hosted activists at his home. But even as he broke barriers for Black actors, becoming the first Black man to win an Oscar
(for Lilies of the Field, in 1964), he faced criticism in the late ’60s for playing roles that were palatable to white audiences.
When Obama won the presidency in 2008, “[Poitier] was so happy,” Irena says. “It was a joy, a pride, it was relief. But it was interesting to see it through a fatherly eye, because he was concerned for his safety. He was going to be concerned.”
In 2009, Obama presented Poitier with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He said that Poitier “left an indelible mark on American culture … In front of Black and white audiences struggling to right the nation’s moral compass, Sidney Poitier brought us the common tragedy of racism, the inspiring possibility of reconciliation, and the simple joys of everyday life. Ultimately, the man would mirror the character, and both would advance the nation’s dialogue on race and respect.”