James Garner’s legacy: A commitment to civil rights and political activism

When actor James Garner decided to help organize and attend the March on Washington in 1963, he wasn’t just listening to his conscience. He and other actors who attended may have been embarking on Hollywood’s first large-scale political act since the days of McCarthyism and Hollywood’s anti-Communist blacklist.

After years of viewing the government with suspicion, many felt emboldened to participate, joining forces with black actors such as Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll. Garner and other celebrities in attendance, including Paul Newman and Marlon Brando, openly defied J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was keen to stop the march. In “Nobody Turn Me Around: A People’s History of the 1963 March on Washington,” Charles Euchner wrote:

The FBI attempted to exploit fears about violence and Communist infiltration of the civil rights movement — fears that were partly the result of J. Edgar Hoover’s long campaign against the movement. FBI agents made last-minute calls to celebrities. Do you know, the agents asked, that many of the march’s leaders are Communists? Do you know that Communists and other leftists could create chaos at the march? Do you know that it’s not too late to pull out of the march? Stay away!

While celebrity presence at the March on Washington didn’t seem to have much impact on actors’ box-office takes, the fight for social justice was not always without consequence. As George Takei reminded the audience on “Real Time with Bill Maher” this weekend, when “Star Trek” dared to air an interracial kiss between Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) in the 1968 episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Southern NBC affiliates blacked out of the show and ratings dropped.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/21/james-garners-legacy-a-commitment-to-civil-rights-and-political-activism/