Sidney Poitier, 1960

“I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.”

Sidney Poitier (born 20 February 1927)

You listen to me. You say you don’t want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you’ve been doing? You tell me what rights I’ve got or haven’t got, and what I owe to you for what you’ve done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you’re supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don’t own me! You can’t tell me when or where I’m out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don’t even know what I am, Dad, you don’t know who I am. You don’t know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it’s got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs! You understand, you’ve got to get off my back!
Sidney Poitier as John Prentice in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) dir. Stanley Kramer

In the Heat of the Night (1967).

In the Heat of the Night - Norman Jewison (1967)

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Sidney Poitier in Times Square, 1959

Sidney Poitier in a publicity portrait for the film ‘Cry the Beloved Country’ (United Artists), 1952. Credit: John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive

Sidney Poitier, Lee Grant and Rod Steiger on the set of “In the Heat of the Night” (Norman Jewison, 1967).