History Repeats itself: Sammy Davis Jr. and Richard Nixon/ black celebrities and Donald Trump

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Sammy Davis Jr. supported and campaigned for John F. Kennedy in his 1960 campaign for President.  Davis was supposed to play at Kennedy’s inauguration (spoiler alert Kennedy won) with his fellow rat pack buddy Frank Sinatra. On the day of the inauguration, Davis’s invite was revoked due to the fact Davis was married to a white woman (May Britt). Keep in mind this was 1960 after all but Harry Belafonte also attended the inauguration and was also married to a white woman, yet his invitation was not revoked. Davis was seen as more of a lightning rod than Belafonte, I guess. The revocation deeply hurt Davis and is something I think he never got over.

In 1972, Richard Nixon was running for reelection for President. The Nixon campaign was looking to court black voters and reached out to Davis to see if he would help with that endeavor. Davis became smitten with Nixon, and Nixon embraced Davis even inviting him and his then black wife (Altovise Davis) to spend the night at the White House in the Lincoln Bedroom. It was the first time any African Americans slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. Davis still feeling disgruntled from Kennedys snub over a decade ago and loving the attention that Nixon and his staff was showing him, endorsed Nixon for President at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Davis even came out on stage and hugged Nixon (as shown in the picture above). The hugging and endorsement did not go over well in the African American community because African Americans at that time viewed Nixon like African Americans see Trump today. They thought he was a bigot and a crook (and this was before Watergate scandal !).

To make matters worse, Davis made a USO (United Service Organization) Tour to South Vietnam during the Vietnam war. These tours are meant to entertain and raise the morale of the soldiers. The problem was the Vietnam war, was deeply unpopular with African Americans because A. they didn’t understand why we were over there and what we were fighting for ( to stop the spread of communism allegedly) and b, a lot of young black men were getting killed over there. The cumulation of these two acts made Davis a pariah to the African American community, most viewed him as a sell-out, an Uncle Tom or Nixon’s puppet. Once Nixon campaign caught wind of Davis dwindling support in the black community, they slowly distanced themselves from Davis as well. Davis would later admit to regretting supporting Nixon. He accused Nixon of making promises on civil rights that he did not keep (surprise, surprise).

Davis marched with and financially supported Dr. Martin Luther King. Davis was a long time donor to Jesse Jackson and his Operation PUSH organization. Davis won the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP ( award for outstanding achievement by an African American). Yet all these things went out the window the minute he hugged and endorsed Richard Nixon,. He was considered a sell-out in the eyes of the African American community.

History repeats itself:

In the Fall of 2016, Donald Trump won the Presidential Election. Majority of African Americans disliked Donald Trump (hell a lot of Americans hate him in general). The Trump organization looking to gain some African American support, parade a few black celebrities (Steve Harvey, Kanye West) to Trump towers for meetings with President-elect Trump. The Trump campaign even gets Chrissette Michelle to perform at his inauguration. West, Harvey, and Michelle are immediately panned and ridiculed for these actions by African Americans. West doubled down on his interactions with Trump later by publicly meeting with him in the Oval Office and even wore a MAGA hat! (make America great again). West is ridiculed further and basically disowned by the African American community for these actions and his nonsensical political rants.

Something I never understood is why does the Republican party keep making a half-hearted effort to try to win black votes? They seem to do ok with winning elections without it. They follow the same playbook too, let’s get some black entertainer, athlete or musician and court them and get them to endorse this right wing republican. News Flash Republican party, we are not some monolithic group that will just follow the endorsement of a celebrity! The only thing that occurs from this act is the celebrity’s reputation in the black community is irrefutably damaged. Now the Republican party doesn’t care about that of course, but it also doesn’t end up winning them any more African American votes either. Dear Black celebrity, learn from the mistakes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Kanye West and stop being used by the Republican party. It’s one thing if the star actually believes in the Republican cause and platform, but I think the black celebrities reasons for endorsing these candidates are for publicity, notoriety or in Kanye’s case just to be different. In 2020 when Trump runs for re-election his campaign will reach out and find some black celebrity (maybe Kanye again they seem to like him) to endorse him. It won’t make one difference to African American voters (they still won’t vote for him), and it will make that celebrity a pariah in the African American community. Like clockwork, history repeats itself.