Sammy Davis Jr(30)

“Lessie Lee, do you remember smothering so much Vaseline on my face, I could barely see?” I ask.

“Uh-huh.” Lessie Lee’s standard response.

“My vision was so blurred, I couldn’t see my way back to the bed for ten minutes! No amount of blinking would get rid of that, it was like a coat on my eyeballs!”

“Uh-huh.” Lessie Lee said again, and took the vat back into the house.



My parents adopted my brother Mark in 1963, when he was almost three years old.



“I love Lessie Lee’s strong-soulful-black-woman ‘Uh-huh’—letting you know she’s been around the block a few times. No explanation needed!” I said.



My parents in 1966


“I got that ‘Uh-huh’ from Lessie Lee when I told her that your mother and I were going to meet Martin Luther King for the first time. We attended a mass civil rights rally at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Lessie Lee’s ‘Uh-huh’ translated to: it’s about time you and Dr. King meet, no explanation needed!” Pop said.

In 1963 my father marched with Dr. King at the March on Washington. He campaigned relentlessly against segregation. By the time he was a superstar, Pop forced clubs and casinos across the country to integrate. Back in the day the only place colored folks could hang out in Vegas was the Moulin Rouge.

Burt Boyar was a life-long friend who wrote about my father and the March on Washington in detail. This is what he recounted:

“I was privileged to meet Sammy Davis, Jr. in the mid-1950s and had a friendship that deepened over the years until his death in 1990. Over the course of that friendship, Sammy and I conducted many conversations that were recorded and used for his autobiographies Yes, I Can and Why Me? But in neither of those books did we touch on his role in the Civil Rights Movement or his thoughts on August 28, 1963. I have since shared this story in a book of photos taken by Sammy throughout his life, Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr. Below, in his own words, are Sammy’s recollection of that momentous day:





On his 1961 trip to London Pop was presented to the Queen Mother at a Royal Command Performance. He was overwhelmed by the honor.


“We left early, first thing, flying out of Detroit to Washington. We got in and it was early in the morning and it was already happening. The streets were alive and buzzing. . . .

“I was scared. You know, wonder what’s going to happen? The anticipation of what was going to happen. They were saying things like, if ten thousand people show up it’ll be something. You know, maybe twenty thousand at best. And all the police! Within around three hours of arriving, you knew there was not going to be a riot. Everybody was smiling. And the malcontents were kept so far away that they couldn’t interfere. You saw everybody, you saw them all. Lerone Bennett and a few other of the guys from Johnson Publications, Ebony, and Jet, a few of the photographers, black and white photographers that I knew. We were standing on the steps before the speakers started. Then King got there. And I’m standing, looking down from Lincoln down to the Washington Monument, and going, it’s going to be a good day, man, and everybody started smiling and you knew there ain’t going to be no trouble. This is going to be great. This is what we prayed for. And it was like a virus that spread among the people. It was everybody. I saw little vignettes of things. People touching, holding hands, probably black people who had never touched white people, or hugged or had a physical line of communication before in their lives. And vice versa. White people who had never been next to a poor, humble black woman and her child that she’s holding and everybody had love, it was unbelievable. It really was an unbelievable day, and I remember somebody saying to me, come on, sit on the podium. And I said, no—I can’t see from the podium. I want to see it. I want to be out front. And one of the guys from Ebony said, well, Sam, come sit down here. And I went down like in the first, second row, because I was taking pictures and I wanted to be where I could see what was happening, as opposed to being up there looking out at the people. And then afterwards I came up and there were some pictures taken and I walked up to Martin, and everybody was crying, and I just remember saying, thank you. Thank you. And I couldn’t say any more than that. And he grabbed me and hugged me and I hugged him, and they swept him away.



With Martin Luther King outside of Pop’s dressing room at the Majestic Theater in New York, 1965



The 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. Pop is being interviewed with Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP.



Writer James Baldwin, my father, and Martin Luther King, Jr.



Dad in 1962, in his prime, putting on someone else’s records at a press luncheon.