When white Vaudevillians complained about having to share dressing rooms with dancer Sammy Davis, he'd tell his young son to ignore them. "They're just jealous 'cause we got a better act."
Because he traveled from the age of three with his dad's act, Sammy Davis, Jr. was kept out of school, and thus sheltered from Jim Crow-style segregation.
It was only when he turned 18 and joined the army that Davis realized his color was a handicap. But when he was removed from latrine duty and assigned to entertaining fellow troops, he also realized talent was powerful.
"My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight," he once said. "It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking."
Talent, in any walk of life, is the only power most of us—not born into wealth—possess.
Davis exploited his to mount the pinnacle of the entertainment profession—even winning membership in the original hipster supergroup, The Rat Pack.
Because he traveled from the age of three with his dad's act, Sammy Davis, Jr. was kept out of school, and thus sheltered from Jim Crow-style segregation.
It was only when he turned 18 and joined the army that Davis realized his color was a handicap. But when he was removed from latrine duty and assigned to entertaining fellow troops, he also realized talent was powerful.
"My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight," he once said. "It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking."
Talent, in any walk of life, is the only power most of us—not born into wealth—possess.
Davis exploited his to mount the pinnacle of the entertainment profession—even winning membership in the original hipster supergroup, The Rat Pack.
Along the way, he broke down more racial bars than did many other, more dignified black luminaries of the day—in 1972, even kissing Archie Bunker.
How about you? Are you using your talent to break down bars?
