Sammy Davis Jr. endured being called 'boy, 'c**n' and the N-word. But his greatest humiliation came when JFK refused to let star perform at the inauguration after he married a white woman, says his daughter
Published: 07:15 EST, 18 April 2014 | Updated: 07:15 EST, 18 April 2014
He was known as Mr. Show Business, 'The Entertainer', and the only black, Puerto Rican, one-eyed Jew, to dance, sing and act his way to the top for over six decades.
But Sammy Davis Jr. was never able to escape extreme racial bigotry - even at the hands of President John Kennedy - who refused to let him perform at his inauguration because Sammy had married a white woman, Swedish actress May Britt.
After joining the army in 1942, Sammy was regularly beaten bloody, called ‘boy,’ ‘c**n’ and the N-word by white soldiers who tried to make him drink warm urine from a beer bottle, according to a new book by Sammy’s daughter Tracey Davis, Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal History with My Father, based on conversations with her father during the final months of his life in 1990.
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Mr Show Business: Sammy Davis Jr. achieved the pinnacle of success as an entertainer. But he always feared he would end up like one of his signature songs: Mr. Bojangles...drunk, alone and dancing in a jail cell
Postponed: Sammy Davis Jr. waited until a week after the 1960 presidential election to marry Swedish actress May Britt. Best pal Frank Sinatra asked Sammy to hold off on the marriage because he was afraid of the white backlash against his other bestie John F. Kennedy
Sammy recounted his life stories to his daughter until the voice that took him to the top of the charts, left him unable to speak due to the advancing throat cancer and the carcinoma growing behind his vocal cords. The pigment of the skin on his throat, covering the insidious tumor, had faded out. He had become a caricature of his former self.
While in the Army, he recounted to his daughter, Sammy was sent to the infirmary with repeated broken noses after repeated knock-down drag-out fights over the constant racial epithets. Then a Sargeant Williams taught the 5’6”, 120 lbs. 17-year old entertainer that he had to use his talent and not his fists if he was going to win the battle against humiliating racial ignorance.
‘Every night I would lay in bed, wondering what is it about skin that made people hate so much. But it was far deeper than skin; to these white cats, I was a different breed’, Sammy recalled about his Army days.
‘Sergeant Williams was my savior. You’ve got to fight with your brains, Sammy, not your fists’, the Sergeant told him. ‘He taught me to read and write. Sammy didn’t even attend one day of school growing up!
Left out: Although Sammy worked on behalf of JFK to help him win the election, he was not front-and-center the way Sinatra was
Best man: When Sammy and Frank shared a sandwich the day they met in Detroit in 1941 they bonded for life. Sammy was one of the 'Three Musketeers' of the infamous Rat Pack, along with crooner Dean Martin.
‘I owe him my life’, he said of Sergeant Williams. ‘He tempered all the humiliation I felt from my unit. He distracted me from all my rage, all my anger. I wouldn’t have survived the army without him’.
But when the sergeant left the barracks, the soldiers wanted to turn Sammy into their slave. ‘I refused to do it and was teased as the ‘uppity n***r boy’. ‘I felt like I was on an island all alone’.
A Corporal Edward and a soldier by the name of Jennings were the worst offenders, beating Sammy until bloody after his performances at the Officer’s Club. They stepped on and crushed the gold watch his father had given him. They took a can of white paint and wrote the N-word across his chest and asked him to ‘be a good little c**n and give us a dance’.
In a faux gesture of friendship, Jennings invited him to have a beer that turned out to be a bottle of warm urine.
The harassment didn’t stop until he was transferred into a Special Services unit where he performed for the entertainment regiment.
‘My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man’s thinking – From then on, deep in my heart, soul and spirit, I knew I had to be a star.’
Frank Sinatra was the other man who helped Sammy through years of racial injustice. ‘Those cats saved the day for me’.
First Couple: Sammy expected to entertain JFK and Jackie Kennedy at the inaugural ball. He was crushed when he was shunned by the new president
- Frank Sinatra helped Sammy through the years of racial injustice, but he tried to persuade Sammy not to marry actress May Britt until after the 1960 election; he was afraid of racial backlash against his other close pal JFK
- Daughter Tracey Davis revelations about her father's black experience in new book Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey with My Father
- When Sammy was in the infantry he was beaten and called 'boy' and 'c00n' and had the N-word scrawled across his bare chest in white paint
- White soldiers tried to make Sammy drink warm urine from a beer bottle
- Sammy performed in Vegas but slept in a segregated quarters - a cardboard shack - and was not allowed to address the audience directly
Published: 07:15 EST, 18 April 2014 | Updated: 07:15 EST, 18 April 2014
He was known as Mr. Show Business, 'The Entertainer', and the only black, Puerto Rican, one-eyed Jew, to dance, sing and act his way to the top for over six decades.
But Sammy Davis Jr. was never able to escape extreme racial bigotry - even at the hands of President John Kennedy - who refused to let him perform at his inauguration because Sammy had married a white woman, Swedish actress May Britt.
After joining the army in 1942, Sammy was regularly beaten bloody, called ‘boy,’ ‘c**n’ and the N-word by white soldiers who tried to make him drink warm urine from a beer bottle, according to a new book by Sammy’s daughter Tracey Davis, Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal History with My Father, based on conversations with her father during the final months of his life in 1990.
+10
Mr Show Business: Sammy Davis Jr. achieved the pinnacle of success as an entertainer. But he always feared he would end up like one of his signature songs: Mr. Bojangles...drunk, alone and dancing in a jail cell
Postponed: Sammy Davis Jr. waited until a week after the 1960 presidential election to marry Swedish actress May Britt. Best pal Frank Sinatra asked Sammy to hold off on the marriage because he was afraid of the white backlash against his other bestie John F. Kennedy
Sammy recounted his life stories to his daughter until the voice that took him to the top of the charts, left him unable to speak due to the advancing throat cancer and the carcinoma growing behind his vocal cords. The pigment of the skin on his throat, covering the insidious tumor, had faded out. He had become a caricature of his former self.
While in the Army, he recounted to his daughter, Sammy was sent to the infirmary with repeated broken noses after repeated knock-down drag-out fights over the constant racial epithets. Then a Sargeant Williams taught the 5’6”, 120 lbs. 17-year old entertainer that he had to use his talent and not his fists if he was going to win the battle against humiliating racial ignorance.
‘Every night I would lay in bed, wondering what is it about skin that made people hate so much. But it was far deeper than skin; to these white cats, I was a different breed’, Sammy recalled about his Army days.
‘Sergeant Williams was my savior. You’ve got to fight with your brains, Sammy, not your fists’, the Sergeant told him. ‘He taught me to read and write. Sammy didn’t even attend one day of school growing up!
Left out: Although Sammy worked on behalf of JFK to help him win the election, he was not front-and-center the way Sinatra was
Best man: When Sammy and Frank shared a sandwich the day they met in Detroit in 1941 they bonded for life. Sammy was one of the 'Three Musketeers' of the infamous Rat Pack, along with crooner Dean Martin.
‘I owe him my life’, he said of Sergeant Williams. ‘He tempered all the humiliation I felt from my unit. He distracted me from all my rage, all my anger. I wouldn’t have survived the army without him’.
But when the sergeant left the barracks, the soldiers wanted to turn Sammy into their slave. ‘I refused to do it and was teased as the ‘uppity n***r boy’. ‘I felt like I was on an island all alone’.
A Corporal Edward and a soldier by the name of Jennings were the worst offenders, beating Sammy until bloody after his performances at the Officer’s Club. They stepped on and crushed the gold watch his father had given him. They took a can of white paint and wrote the N-word across his chest and asked him to ‘be a good little c**n and give us a dance’.
In a faux gesture of friendship, Jennings invited him to have a beer that turned out to be a bottle of warm urine.
The harassment didn’t stop until he was transferred into a Special Services unit where he performed for the entertainment regiment.
‘My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man’s thinking – From then on, deep in my heart, soul and spirit, I knew I had to be a star.’
Frank Sinatra was the other man who helped Sammy through years of racial injustice. ‘Those cats saved the day for me’.
First Couple: Sammy expected to entertain JFK and Jackie Kennedy at the inaugural ball. He was crushed when he was shunned by the new president
