Michael Ruffin

In May 1963, as Birmingham, Alabama became one of the most important battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement, actor and comedian Redd Foxx joined Eartha Kitt and others at a rally in New York organized in support of the people confronting segregation in the South. Birmingham had become internationally notorious for its rigid system of racial segregation and the violent resistance to those demanding change. That spring, the Birmingham Campaign brought demonstrations, sit-ins and marches into the streets, while hundreds of protesters were arrested. When young people joined the demonstrations during what became known as the Children’s Crusade, police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor authorized the use of police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses against demonstrators, producing images that shocked audiences across the United States and around the world. Foxx, already well known as a comedian, reportedly became overwhelmed with emotion while addressing the New York gathering. Photographs from the event captured him crying as Eartha Kitt stood nearby. The moment revealed another side of Black celebrity involvement in the movement. The struggle was not carried only by the activists whose names now appear in history books. Black entertainers, musicians, actors and comedians also raised money, attended rallies, supported civil rights organizations and used their public visibility to draw attention to what was happening in places like Birmingham. For performers whose careers depended on navigating a deeply segregated entertainment industry, openly associating themselves with civil rights activism could also carry professional consequences. Eartha Kitt’s presence was equally significant. Long before her famous 1968 confrontation with First Lady Lady Bird Johnson over the Vietnam War, Kitt was willing to speak publicly about racism and social inequality. Like Foxx, she belonged to a generation of Black entertainers whose success did not insulate them from the realities facing Black Americans. Fame could provide access and influence, but it could not erase the emotional weight of watching people who looked like them beaten, arrested and humiliated simply for demanding rights supposedly guaranteed to American citizens. If you love our content and would like to support the page, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/africanarch… or tap Link in