Encountering:Breaking the Barrier

Over the past decade, African American people in the movies has been a normal, with Denzel Washington and Halle Berry winning Best Actor, and Best Actress in a Movie all in the same year. The times of the day, however, make it is easy to forget who broke the first barrier of interracial movies.

Sidney Poitier was not the first African American man to be in a white film, though he was the first in many areas, the most important being he was the first to be accepted in the white community.

A Few Of Sidney Poitier’s “Firsts” (as a black male)
1. Won a prestigious international film award for “Something of Value” 1957
2. First to be nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award “The Defiant Ones” 1958
3. First to star as a romantic lead “Paris Blues” 1961
4. First to win the Oscar “Lilies of the Fields” 1963
5. First to become the number one box office star in the country 1968
6. First to insist on a film crew that was at least 50% African American “The Lost Man” 1969
7. Starred in the first mainstream movies to condone interracial marriages and permit a mixed couple to hug and kiss “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” 1967


The great Martin Luther King Jr. had said of Poitier, “He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom. Here is a man who, in the words we often hear now, is a soul brother.” This quote describes the influence Poitier had on the African American people.

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