Long before Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Gabrielle Union, Janelle
Monáe, Kerry Washington, Keke Palmer, Rihanna,
Shonda Rimes, Taraji P. Henson and Viola Davis
came on the scene, there was Eartha Kitt.
Born on a South Carolina plantation in
1927, Eartha Kitt would become a multitalented
actor and singer, a comedian and dancer, and a
civil rights activist.
Kitt was one of the few Black actors on TV,
playing the role of Catwoman on
the 1960s Batman television
series. This was a time when there were so few
Black faces on TV that Black folks would call
their friends and family on the phone when one
of us actually appeared on the screen.
While Eartha Kitt is known for her talent as an
entertainer and celebrity, little is known
about her activism and the price she paid to
her career for speaking out against a sitting
president – to his face and in his house.
Kitt played a powerful role as Catwoman, in her skintight
catsuit and sensual purr, at a time when Black
people were feeling their sense of power,
demanding power, fighting for change and
speaking truth to power on civil rights and
the war in Vietnam. This Black woman was on
top of her game, and could have used her
influence and celebrity status for any number
of things. She chose to speak out against
injustice.
In
1967, Eartha Kitt testified
before Congress on
behalf of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s
juvenile delinquency legislation. The
following year, the First Lady (Lady Bird
Johnson) invited Kitt to a White House
luncheon, the Women
Doers’ luncheon to
discuss this question: “Why is there so
much juvenile delinquency in the streets of
America?” Kitt expected the luncheon would
be “a
lot of nonsense -
flowers, champagne, a chance to show off. I
felt a con coming on.” Perhaps this
respectable White House luncheon crowd did not
expect the outspoken Eartha Kitt to condemn
America for sending young Black men to die in
Vietnam.
Johnson
told the crowd that the problem with
delinquency starts in the home. Kitt told
President Johnson to his face that the issue
was not delinquency, but rather that young
people were
“angry because their parents are angry . . .
because there is a war going on that they
don’t understand.”
“Boys I know across the nation feel
it doesn’t pay to be a good guy,” Kitt said.
“They figure with a record they don’t have
to go off to Vietnam. You send the best of
this country off to be shot and maimed. They
rebel in the street. They will take pot and
they will get high. They don’t want to go to
school because they’re going to be snatched
off from their mothers to be shot in
Vietnam.”
Kitt added:“Mrs. Johnson, you are a mother too, although
you have had daughters and not sons. I am a
mother and I know the feeling of having a baby
come out of my guts. I have a baby and then
you send him off to war. No wonder the kids
rebel and take pot. And, Mrs. Johnson, in case
you don’t understand the lingo that’s
marijuana.”
Ok, Eartha, we see you!
As
a result of her public statement, Kitt was
monitored by the CIA and her career was ruined
for a decade. In 1978, President
Jimmy Carter welcomed
Kitt to the White House. She died in
2008.
The moral of the story is that when the President asks you
a question, either you say what people want to
hear or you speak the truth. And when you are
a Black celebrity, you can use your influence
to move things forward. This is an example of
Black women using their celebrity status to
stand up to power and stand up for the
community.
