Nat King Cole comments on being assaulted by white supremacists (Arlington, VA, 4/13/1956)
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2020
- Produced by Telenews. Date: April 13, 1956.
Summary: In this Telenews footage from April 13, 1956, singer, jazz pianist and entertainer Nat King Cole is interviewed alongside his wife, Maria Cole, at an airport in Arlington, Virginia, before departing for Raleigh, North Carolina, during a tour of the southern United States.
With over 150 Billboard-charting hits, Nat King Cole (1919-1965) was one of the most popular vocalists of his era, as well as an accomplished jazz instrumentalist who set the standard for future small jazz ensembles with his Nat King Cole Trio in the 1940s. Cole also made history as one of the first African Americans to host a nationally broadcast series on American network television, The Nat King Cole Show, which premiered on NBC in November 1956.
Throughout his life, Cole challenged racial discrimination, standing empowered in the face of intimidation and attacks from hate groups. One of the more highly publicized incidents took place shortly before this interview, referred to by the reporter in the clip as the “incident in Birmingham.” Three days prior, while Cole was performing for a whites-only audience in Birmingham, Alabama, a group of white supremacists with plans to kidnap or murder Cole assaulted him on stage. The attackers were members of the White Citizens Council (WCC), a network of local white supremacist groups that had formed to resist the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954.
Members of the African American press were critical of his performances for segregated audiences, to which Cole responded: “My being there [in the South] helps spread goodwill, too. The 4,000 people in the audience [...] are going away with a new attitude. We have got to show the pro-segregationists that we are bigger than they are […] I’ll continue to go South and fight in my own way” (Daily Defender, Apr. 12, 1956). Cole ultimately reasserted his commitment to civil rights by boycotting segregated venues and joining the NAACP, and continued to be a visible figure for the movement for the rest of his life. -Russell Zych, Digital Communications Assistant
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Footage from the Hearst Metrotone News Collection at UCLA Film & Television Archive. Telenews, a syndicated newsfilm service for television, was a part of the Hearst newsreel enterprise from roughly 1954 through 1962. Hearst footage may be licensed for film, television and other productions. Learn more: ucla.in/2g6VNJx
© The Regents of the University of California 
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Man was pure class. Imagine being a black man in 50/60s America and still being remembered and respected over 50 years after your death. That is some achivement right there.
preach
What a time that was. How could anyone lay a finger on this man 🤴🏾
I think the elites back then were agitating whites against blacks. Now they agitate blacks against whites.
@@zorro149 really ? Sound like the same bigot trash to me log off mayo
@@isabelia2385 That was almost a sentence! Keep trying.
@@zorro149 hmm" you lost me?
@@leonparham2105 Watch Mark Dice. You'll see what I mean.
Nat was so right it wasn’t about the music he was producing it was his race that’s why they attacked him.
Really????? I thought they were music critics…
@@leonardoiglesias2394 Wow I completely forgot about this comment.
Nat King Cole a true Gentleman & a Scholar.
I love the story of how after Nat and his wife bought a house in Hancock Park in LA, a group from the, "Homeowners Association" came to see him and told him they didn't want any, "undesirables," in the neighborhood. He is reported to have told them, (knowing they were talking about him,) " I agree. If I see any undesirables, I'll report them immediately." Incredible talent, incredible man.
Really lol I love this guy he's incredible
He knew racism, he had been a victim of it before and understood what could've happened to him. He was such a class act. He didn't waste time to opine on an issue he knew he alone could not change.
To a great degree he transcended the problem with his enormous talent and engaging personality ... but there's always a few dip wads among us unfortunately.
How could you not love Nat Cole??!!
My attitude is, if you don't love him, I don't love you!
What a fantastic man.
As a black man and a performer. Nat King Cole had a lot of respect for himself and other’s, and people of different race had respect for him as well. As a black man to do an interview like this. He had to be a really big man that was respect by many. And his wife in this video reminds me of Natalie Cole.
The media is the problem for us to move forward as a nation
Those are her parents …she looked like both of them
@@getyourkicks ...Correct!
After 29 yrs.. I've got to hear those beautiful song of this man. Beautiful voice and beautiful smile. I was crying to know that he's the original singer of those songs that my late mom really love and i use to listen when when i was young..
SMILE
WHEN I FALL IN LOVE
THE NEARNESS OF YOU..
He was a national treasure.. lovely man & couple! ❤️
Nat King Cole, besides being one of the greatest singers of all time, was truly a class act.
People can learn a lot today,from listening to Nat was saying way back then.A supreme musician ,singer,and human being !!!!
Such an admirable man and spectacular entertainer!
THIS WORLD NEEDS MORE CLASSY LADIES & MEN LIKE THIS, NOT THE FOOLS THAT SPEAK ON OUR NEWS BROADCASTS STATIONS THESE DAYS.
Why golly, what’ is it that’s being said on “our” news?
And we need MORE people to correct and make it uncomfortable for the racists in their families and neighbors like the ones who attacked Mr. Cole
to behave like this and not just leave it to black people.
One of the finest singers of all time and a gentle soul!
This video is a valuable piece of history.
I love NKC. What a 🇺🇸 music icon. Sad what he and other ppl of color had to go through. Hate and racism is still here in 2020.
Yes, but now it's all anti-white.
@@zorro149 ...What goes around comes around!!!
People of color have been through a whole lot and that’s a fact !!!!and we shall keep on fighting for justice”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one in the whole world should be disrespected because of their skin color!!!
@@zorro149 Correction.... ANTI-TERRORIST is more accurate. We cant help that you white supremacist are the best at it.
@@zorro149 not you playing the victim lmao
So proud that my mother named me after a Nat King Cole song-"Sweet Lorraine".She loved Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine.Nat was a classy man A sweet,gentle soul.💙💙
The hatred breaks my heart. What a classy man he was.
When he moved in white neighborhood tgey sent letter stating "we don't want any undesirables in our community"... He replied back "I dont wamt any either I i see some I'll let you Kno"😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣That's classy
Periodt 😌💯
The racists burned a cross on his front yard when he moved to Beverly Hills.
Frank Sinatra and his friends were pretty upset over what had happened and the word got around. People showed up at Nats home to welcome him.
It was not Beverly Hills but Hancock Park. Being a native of Los Angeles it is nowhere near Beverly.
@@suzettebennett2564 ...Correct!!!
Boy we’ve endured so much..
..”We must’ve really hurt the Lord to have Him brought us throughout this condition..”
A GIANT Ambassador of good will for all time. He rose above hatred and continued to sow love by example. Mr Cole proved in this powerful interview that love conquers hatred EVERY TIME!
It wasn't by example....I think his attitude was more of "eat **** and die"..he didn't let anything phase him and he knew he was pure class...through his voice, he was more powerful than anyone, than anything idiotic someone could say...
❤❤❤
Natalie Cole had the same speaking voice as her mother! Beautiful!🥰💕
That man has given me so much beauty and happiness, which I can never repay. I love you, Nat, wherever you are!
This is why his music was more beautiful and more timeless then Sinatra, Bennett or any other Jazz Performer to me. Nat King Cole and his family belong to the one of the kind talent and class money can't buy.
Yes. Also, it is called respect.
Think about the amount of racism and horrible stuff he’s went through but yet would smile and bring magic when he would sing
That’s why I laugh when white racist kids say they feel like they are being targeted for being white nowadays. No where near comparable
Boy,oh boy! I pray that this man is in with Jesus now! He has such a gift for music and the amount of racism and discrimination he had to deal with is insane!
If he moved to my neighborhood I would welcome him and his family with all my heart ❤️💞.
Wonderful to see and hear Nat King Cole's ethically
committed, compassionate, respectful, and wise words in this interview. And also to briefly meet the brave
Mrs. Cole.
America never deserved him, RIP Nat
His TV show needs to be restored and released on DVD and streaming .... It's historically significant and a wealth of musical treasures from both Nat and his wonderful guests. The Music Industry ought to forgo or lower the fees that often make such releases impractical ... the world needs to hear Nat again.
Hay personas que nunca deberían morir! RIP Nat King Cole!
The song he was starting on when those thugs rushed the stage in Birmingham, according to the 1956 Time magazine article on the beating, was "Little Girl". The one before that was "Autumn Leaves". So it wasn't that they were angry about rock-and-roll. They were angry that a black man was singing romantic songs that made their wives and girlfriends dreamy-eyed. Billy Eckstine had the same problem at the time. As a black man in America, not a time I care to go back to.
For a white man he was a great time. They coul do anything without punishment. No wonder they're so sentimental about it and want MAGA.
@@maximejanvier5258 Yawn...
@@maximejanvier5258 there sure is a lot of women saying oh what a classy man I wish we were back there
Oddly emotional to see this. So much of this mans output is extraordinarily well crafted and beautiful. Not a split second of bitterness in any of it. It arrives like a gift even all these decades later.
Oh what a LOVELY man he was! x
This video is so very powerful. When asked how he felt about integrated audiences he immediately turned to his position as an entertainer and said that he and his music is all about bringing people together. You don’t see that type of class and level-headedness in the group of so-called “entertainers” that we have today with an iota of this man’s talent. Nat ‘King’ Cole endured TRUE hatred and racism that the “stars” of today couldn’t even fathom, yet he dealt with it by taking the high road and never getting on their level. As an entertainer, NOT AN ACTIVIST, he resolved to stay in his lane and let the legislative/legal system figure out the rest. He even said as much in this clip. He could have played the victim, but he valued himself too much. Hatred and ignorance didn’t have that power over him. You would NEVER see this in today’s victimhood/outrage society. We live in a world where everyone has an opinion and when every celebrity feels that they must use their platform to opine on every single issue, often times with ignorance of what they speak. Modern Hollywood could learn a LOT from this gentleman. This man was the embodiment of what any and everyone should aspire to be. One in a billion.
Denzel Washington could definitely play him in a movie seriously they have a similar voice ! and look
Mr. Brian McKnight, should play him due towards his singing voice and the resemblance.
He talks like him but nobody can ever sing like him
@@lastdays3148 ...He doesn't look like Nat "King" Cole.
He and Denzel don’t sound alike and definitely didn’t look alike. I love NKC and would like someone who could act and sing and resemble him more to play him.
@@lisacox3750 Yes, you are right!
GOD REST HIS SOUL..."THE JACKIE ROBINSON OF ENTERTAINMENT"....HE HAD TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEK...PURE CLASS...FRANK LOVED HIM...WHAT WOULD CHRISTMAS BE WITHOUT THE LATE,GREAT, MR. NAT "KING" COLE..?...THANKS FOR UPLOADING..GOD BLESS ALL !...SUBSCRIBED...
The media reporters are the problem then and now.. They make assumptions then ask what song was he singing? Crazy
'Negro music'??? Cheeky b*stard.....
Well said
There was literally nothing wrong with the reporter and his questions, considering that this was the 50's...
I had no idea about this until I watched the Green Book.
I can understand people why are they have to be so cruel there's no sense in being cruel
💖
Best male singer if all time. Nobody better.
What a terrible thing to happen to such a wonderful man. He was such a fantastic performer and yet the kids today, both black and white will never get to appreciate and love the music of Nat Cole. He was probably the best singer of the 20th century even better than Sinatra. The crap that he went through was terrible. You know, the kids today Don't really understand what these guys had to go through just to perform. They weren't preaching a political agenda just beautiful music. Anybody that can hate on Nate Cole needs to have their head examined. His daughter was another dynamic singer taken from us way too soon.
He got called names by idiots on both sides of the race issue
... but most people saw him for what he was: a man of enormous talent and courage that transcended petty problems with his warmth and universal musical appeal.
Every time I think of him it makes me sad that he left us so young ... a tremendous loss.
Jim crow and racism,what the great Nat King Cole went through wasn't that long ago,racist country ain't changed at all
Ain't changed at all?? Aight, sis, carry on then
@@Demotri11 im a man watch how you part your lips and words
@@mrmaxxx94 I know you're a man... That don't change shit
NKC was a class act. He recorded the best songs of all time. I wish he hadn't smoked; we lost him far too soon.
He had to do something. The man was terrorized his entire life.
I agree with you. I am from Brazil and a NKC fan.
Stress. Black performers had so much more stress. REMEMBER: White superstars, had movies and TV to being money in. Black superstars had only concerts and records. Look at this one incident there in Alabama. Lots of stress
It caused many black and whites to do drugs and drink heavy too. Bill Evans, Parker, Lester Young etc.
Tough business.
@@Wixom2200 I don't deny that it was an incredibly stressful and unnecessarily stressful time, but black singers including Nat King Cole were also on movies and TV. He was actually the first black performer to have his own show. It only lasted for a season because no advertising but just saying he had opportunities and he was seen on television as well as the movies.
Dignity personified - Nat King Cole.
Honestly, hearing the propellers in the background is a cool aspect of the video. Nobody will ever hear an airfield in that way ever again!
This man was all class. His character and music said it all. Most people were decent and moral back. A time long gone…
What a great ambassador during a complex time in our nations troubled past. Nat had talent that was outstanding and has transcended time immoral.
What a beautiful man he was i mean dark and beautiful i love black men nothing better on this planet
I love Nat..my father was one of his biggest fans
One of the finest
Poor guy, as incredible as the civil rights movement was I think all he wanted to do was sing. However, something pretty cool is that after playing at hotels that didn’t allow him to stay due to his colour, he would sue them under the radar - often successfully!
Being as popular as he was pre civil rights, he knew that he was inspiring to all of black America. He was an activist in this way. He had a tightrope to walk. Imagine if he'd have taken a stand against segregation in the 40s; a career in shatters and a rebuke to those young black people for whom he was a shining light. Nat took a lot of hits for this stance, but he became popular in the 40s not the 60s. He did what he could in his own way. Note how cautious and restrained he is in his comments here. I do not believe he ever played the deep South again.
❤️. Beautiful! ❤️.
Always took the highest road!
Class act.
Not too long ago I was watching on National Geography channel a white man going around the world and meet with indigenous people. In one segment, he went to a remote Polynesian Island or African village and started to speak to them. Without hesitation, they invite him to sit and eat with them. And I said to myself, imagine it was the other way around, a black man found himself in a remote place, especially in rural America, where there were only white folks. What are the chances for him to make it it out alive, let alone be invited to share their meal with them?
He had a million dollar voice
A Gentleman with class
And talent 😊
You will never hear a voice like this so full of such majestic vibrance, life, conviction and holiness. Im no civil crusader by any means. I even sometimes break chops in a racial way out of fun for all of us to laugh at our differences rather than fight over them. But it really pi$$es me off to my soul the injustices just how bad black people like Nat King Cole, Joe Louis, Sammy Davis Jr and such got totally railroaded in life in every way by white people and the industries when they were very humble people.
You hit a Christmas song legend
Congrats Katanji Brown.Jackson. Progress made. Need more love still !
This man is a great, great singer & great person period.
0:55 reporters gas lighting from decades ago😂
I didn’t realize how much Natalie Cole favors her mother.
They don’t make man Ike Mr. Cole anymore!! Such and icon and will live in our hearts forever ❤️✨
Wonderful man Nat King Cole ❤
Nat wanted to punch out that reporter, can’t blame him. He was forced to toe certain lines but he wasn’t going to have his intelligence insulted too.
That would've been a really stupid thing to do.
True American Gem, him and Sinatra are summ special
You can see the immense effort it took for him to do the interview- witness the involuntary movement of this tongue after he finishes speak, perhaps a sign of stress from his horrific ordeal
💔
Nat is a legend.
❤ the comments
Natalie Cole looked like her mother...just dark like her father. Wow!
They were a Beautiful & Elegant family. And they are all in the Spiritual World together and forever🌹
Not really Dark Damn you act like Nat King Cole, and Natalie Cole were Dark as Hell. Neither one of them are really all of that Dark at all, but I agree she looked like her Mother though. I can see Nat in her too though she looks like both of them in a way.
Do you have any John Daly newscasts from ABC?
The fact that people from my hometown tracked him kinda just hurt different
It still boggles the mind when we think about how terrible it was for dark skinned people back in those days. My Grandpa used to tell me some stories about those times.
I would love it if a movie was made about his life - but who could play NKC, so classy, such a voice?
I’m from Birmingham and I’m so ashamed of that incident in the past. My grandmother lived in a black neighborhood and her neighbors were awesome. Also, African Americans helped make Birmingham a “foodie” city. Marsh’s Bakery and The Ensley Grille were the best. I’m very proud that Nat King Cole was born in Alabama! He was one of the greatest crooners of the twentieth century.
Nat was a consummate gentleman
These people are cowards, this man was a genius at the piano, and had style.
We know so little about our history. These events represent to tenor or the times.
Come to Brazil
Better than Cardi B throwing a mic at an audience member who threw a drink at her.
What a MAN. Sheesh.
It's a shame he couldn't quit smoking , I lost my mother to c.o.p.d ; It's terrible.
Green Book brought me here
Who interviewed him? He seemed callous and unashamed at referring to the South more then to Mr. Coles safety. I wish Mr. Cole kept a Colt.
That was a dumb question about him singing Rock and Roll music knowing he didn't sing that type of music.
❤
America has come a long way. Nothing is perfect but to deny the progress made in civil rights is to deny reality. Don't belittle the fight that it took and the gains made.
Sad sad sad.
KING...
Classy man
I thought he didn’t go to Raleigh,NC but found out from a exhibition of a music promoter who booked Black acts at the City of Raleigh Museum years back.
Very rough times. For any race, hatred is a very powerful thing. It will bring out ugly parts that you didn't even know you had. It overrules all logic.
Sounds angry?
reporter trying to justify the racism instead of calling it exactly what it is while Mr. King is stating the prevailing environment and conditions he and others have to deal with
Nat didn't have a scratch, he had them hands 🥊