Interesting fact: Tony Bennett was demoted during World War II because he ate with a black soldier before racial integration. Tony Bennett invited his Black friend, Frank Smith, to dine with him at a time when soldiers were still officially segregated. As a result, a bigoted officer demoted Bennett from corporal to private and reassigned him to a unit that exhumed mass graves and prepared the bodies of soldiers for shipment back home[1]. This incident was an example of the widespread prejudice and discrimination that existed in the army during that time[1]. Tony Bennett later became an advocate for civil rights and joined Dr. Martin Luther King during the 1965 civil rights march in Alabama[1].
RIP Tony Bennett
Citations:
[1]https://t.co/Z4OZkeVmjM
[2]https://t.co/e535V52LZo
[3]https://t.co/pYu3ImEmLr
[4]https://t.co/rXFse66Eer
[5]https://t.co/q1nSFhAhOC
[6]https://t.co/681J2yRjGg
This is #TheInconvenientKing.
This is a clip of my father that anyone who only quotes one MLK line from the end of ‘I Have a Dream’ should watch/hear.
And he didn’t evolve to working for economic + racial justice right before he was assassinated.
He talked about it in IHAD.
I will remember Tony Bennett joining the March from Selma to Montgomery for Voting Rights in 1965. He performed, under the threat of violence, for those fighting for their rights. Harry Belafonte asked him to join the movement. We lost both of these icons months apart. God Bless
Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was, “Because of You,” his first #1 hit.
Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever. ❤
Today in 1946 WWII veteran Maceo Snipes was shot in his back by the KKK the day after he became the first Black person to cast a vote in Taylor County, Georgia.
After he was shot, Mr. Snipes walked three miles to the hospital with his mother. For six hours doctors left him waiting and bleeding. By the time he was seen, he needed a blood transfusion. The doctors said the hospital had no “black blood.” Snipes died two days later.
This is why I will vote in every election. The day I stop voting is the day I stop breathing. #FreshVotesBlue #BlackHistoryWithLana
My father didn’t pass away.
He was assassinated.
A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America.
Most hated.
Many who quote one #MLK line, tweet egregious AI photos of him, and evoke him to deter justice actually despise #TheInconvenientKing.