Eartha Kitt 1927-2008: I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!

In January 1968, Eartha Kitt was invited to a luncheon at the White House. The subject was "What Citizens Can Do To Help Ensure Safe Streets." Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson, was hosting the event.

When asked by the First Lady, Eartha Kitt responded: '"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the streets. 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."

There was a general commotion amongst the fifty ladies present, and comments of shock that Ms Kitt could bring up the subject of the war in such a way. Several ladies spoke to assert their pride that sons and husbands were doing their duty and serving in the armed forces. The group applauded each time, and Eartha stood, arms folded.

Mrs Johnson answered her guest. "Because there is a war on - and I pray that there will be a just and honest peace - that still doesn't give us a free ticket not to try to work for better things such as against crime in the streets, better education, and better health for our people. Crime in the streets is one thing we can solve. I am sorry I can't speak as well or as passionately on conditions of slums as you, because I have not lived there."

Eartha Kitt, realising that she was in a minority of one in her opinions, but deciding that she had to persist, told Mrs Johnson: "I have to say what's in my heart. I have lived in the gutters."

The First Lady was reportedly either visibly shaken or on the verge of tears, according to different witnesses. She finally turned to Eartha Kitt and brought the conversation to a close: "I am sorry. I cannot understand the things you do. I have not lived with the background you have."

The Johnsons were keenly aware of what needed to be done to change America. They were not like Mr Dalton in 'Native Son', the liberal benefactor who can never understand that his donations to the South Side Boys Club will never change how his own companies refuse access to housing in other areas of Chicago and then overcharge on the rent due to 'high demand'. The Johnsons had tried to do many important things to promote greater equality for black Americans, and the meeting itself was supposed to discuss issues such as housing and employment, at the core of those inequalities. But they were unable to accept in their minds that a war had an impact upon their domestic agenda, despite the 30 billion dollars spent on it in that year that even saw the Defence Department request spending cuts on non-frontline military equipment to compensate. The Great Society was in peril. Which was the greater issue for them? One young woman had asked them.

Eartha Mae Kitt, January 17th 1927 - December 25th 2008

Events related by Mark Kurlansky in his book "1968", based on reports in TIME magazine, January 26th 1968 and other press coverage. Photos from the White House Museum.

I Could Never Be President!

Race in US politics has always determined the heights of possible ambition. Is this about to change at the highest level? Jesse Jackson succeeded to the Democratic Party nomination. Will Senator Barack Obama first take the nomination and then the Presidency? That brings up very exciting possibilities. Mr Obama has strong family ties to Kenya, and supports local schools in his grandmother's town. I feel that such a man, if elected President, would therefore have a radically different perspective on the USA's relationship with the Third World. Then again, I feel less comfortable with his blanket praise for Ronald Reagan's ability to 'change' the entire nation. Ronnie, and even more so Nancy, have many great achievements in their favour, particularly in the sphere of the conclusion of the Cold War. However, domestically, the USA could not have been further from the goals of the Great Society during his Presidency. Maybe this comment by Obama explains what happened next...

On the other side, is the warning word of the cynic. Ironically, it was the Come-Back Kid himself, Bill Clinton, sometimes nicknamed 'the first black President' who, by referring to the rise of less experienced Obama as a 'kid' in 'the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen' left himself open to the charge of having a paternalist attitude. Don't set your hopes too high, he seems to suggest. I think it was the Reagan jibe that made him snap. To his credit, Bill did then make an attempt at amends, telephoning Rev Al Sharpton's radio show to tell him that "He [Obama] had put together a great campaign... he might win." Ah, Bill, you charmer. I can never stay made at you. You'd still make a great First Man. And when I look at certain policy proposals supported by Hillary, such as a health care or insurance scheme for all Americans regardless of wealth, I am of the view that Hillary too could make a President who made a difference.

However, Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff had by this time already proceeded much further in their politicking, in a manner that must leave her husband despairing. She discussed the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr in the run up to the anniversary of his birth, and decided to give an ad hoc lecture on the importance of President Johnson in implementing civil-rights reform. Be it true that Martin Luther King could not alone in 1963 sway the politicians to support change. And it is one of those ironies of history that it was actually the career southern politician Lyndon Johnson, and not the dashing John Kennedy, who would actually turn out to care about civil rights and have the political skills to push them through Congress. Yet, to deny one of these facts over the other is to deny the obvious interplay between them. Historical factors do not work in isolation. Johnson knew very well his chance to pass the Civil Rights Act on 1964 depended on the up-swell of despair and human idealism that followed the death of a President and the mobilisation of that idealism by activists inspired by the speeches of hope given by Martin Luther King. Every one of those ordinary, extraordinary people who stood up and did something made a difference, as Johnson could refer to the popular movement and apply pressure to the stalwarts and cynics in the Congress.

Now, maybe Hillary Clinton, when she reflects a little out away from Washington, will come to see this, and the contribution of so many. What to say about the Clinton staff member, though, who briefed journalists that one reason not to choose Barack Obama as presidential candidate is that someone might want to assassinate him? Can the currency of civic duty be so debased that some would accept meekly the authority of an assassin to determine who should or should not stand in democratic election? And once again, skin colour stands as the shibboleth that America is too afraid to confront? No, too many times that has been allowed. No more, not this time.

I'm going to play Johnnie Taylor's I Could Never Be President, recorded in 1969. Johnnie is having one of those dilemmas we all have - should he be President and end discrimination and poverty, or spend time loving his woman. Or, in Bill's case, women. Now, I've gone through a half dozen changes of mind on what exactly this song is trying to infer in the light of recent events. It has the word President in it. Listen, then make a difference in your community, by using your voice and your vote. I Could Never Be President? Why the hell not?

Johnnie Taylor - I Could Never Be President (Stax 0046) June 1969

I'm sure this has been all over the press in the USA, but here is a link to a news report if you haven't heard the furor: Daily Telegraph report