A Simple Act
It is a life that almost wasn’t.
He was born in 1927, three months premature. Most people thought the baby would not live. Desperate and afraid, the mother sought out a fortune teller. She predicted the little boy would live and one day walk in the “Halls of Kings.”
The boy survived, but to a harsh life. He was raised in the Bahamas. Cat Island. A place of poverty. His parents were tomato farmers. He became one too. On his island there was no running water, no electricity, no cars, no school.
When he was 10, the family moved to Nassau. There, the boy saw his first refrigerator. At 16, he was sent to live with his brother in Miami. He was shunned because of his race. He fled to New York City. He got a job as a dishwasher. Unable to afford housing he slept in a pay toilet at a bus station.
One day he saw a movie theater and slipped in. He was fascinated and wondered if he could become an Actor. He managed to get an audition at the American Negro Theater, but his accent was so bad the manager threw him out.
He went back to work washing dishes at a restaurant. When a co-worker, an elderly Jewish waiter, learned that the young man could not read a newspaper he spent countless hours after closing helping him learn to read English and to speak with an American dialect.
Months later, the youthful Bahamian auditioned again at the same theater that had rejected him. He was hired. He was given a role in a play… on Broadway! Success followed quickly. He was a leading man in many movies in the 1960’s and 70’s. He became the first Black and Bahamian Actor to win the Academy Award. Queen Elizabeth granted him a Knighthood!
The man who once slept in a toilet became a beloved and admired figure all over the world. He also became a rich man.
His name was… Sidney Poitier.
Yes, this is an amazing story but perhaps the most amazing part is largely forgotten. It is the part about the old Jewish waiter who stayed many nights after work to teach the young man so he could have a chance in life.
Here were two men from totally different backgrounds who came together in friendship.
In our own era of racial and political divisiveness the message is crystal clear.
A little love between people can go a long way.
Sidney Poitier died in 2022.
May the kindness of that elderly Jewish man live as an example for all of us to follow…forever!