Poitier’s ‘snapshots’ of truth captivate audience
By Ellie Ashford
Sidney Poitier shared “snapshots from the album of my life” to illustrate the “simple basic truths” he learned from his parents, whose lessons of values and character were sometimes accompanied by a large dose of harsh discipline.
Poitier, the Oscar-winning actor who helped break down the color barrier by refusing to play racial stereotypes common at the time, kept the audience at the Second General Session spellbound, as he described a life that almost didn’t happen.
Born two months premature in 1927 in a humble Miami house, Poitier was not expected to survive. While his father searched for a shoebox to bury him in, his mother, Evelyn, refused to give up hope. She went to a palm reader who told her the baby would grow up to travel the world and become rich and famous.
Soon after, the family returned to its native Bahamas, where Poitier, the youngest of seven children, grew up in a thatched-roof home with no running water or electricity.
Poitier’s parents were poor and uneducated, but they taught him principles and ethics -- “not by words but by example” -- that have stayed with him. And they taught him that whatever he would encounter in life, to “rely on simple truths.”
As a “restless boy with no common sense,” Poitier was repeatedly subjected to his mother’s “whap method of discipline, when my behavior and her tolerance were out of sync.”
In one snapshot from his childhood, Poitier told how he and a group of friends stole some corn and were caught by the police when they made a fire to roast the corn right there in the field. That led to Poitier’s first night in jail, when his father couldn’t afford the $7 needed to bail him out.
It also led to one of his biggest regrets -- disappointing his father and never having the opportunity to express his appreciation. When he was sent to live with relatives in Miami, Poitier said his father had given him “infinitely more than the $3 he pressed into my hand.”
Another snapshot occurred in Harlem during a “massive civil disturbance,” when Poitier got mixed up with a bunch of looters in a grocery store and was trapped in a storeroom. After a harrowing experience lying on the floor pretending to be dead while the police shined flashlights on him, he finally escaped. But before he could get away, he was shot in the leg by the police.
In another snapshot, Poitier recalled being “destitute with no place to stay” at age 16. He was arrested for vagrancy while sleeping on a bench in the train station. A police officer gave him 50 cents and suggested he go to an orphanage in Brooklyn where nuns could take care of him. They did, and two weeks later, Poitier joined the Army after lying about his age. After serving for a year, he started working as an actor in New York.
Poitier still regrets “never having the opportunity to thank that cop,” as well as a waiter in a restaurant where he later worked as a dishwasher. The waiter spent weeks teaching him to read.
All the help Poitier received has made him a strong believer in philanthropy. Without it, he said, “the world would be less hospitable, less humane place.”
In the final analysis, he said, “It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is what you do with your time after you get up.”
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