06/15/2024
Frank Sinatra was a fervent anti-racist and an early activist during the civil rights movement.
He refused to stay at hotels and play at clubs that did not admit black people. His band would also provide equal pay and treatment for black musicians. It was through his relentless and tireless efforts that Las Vegas quickly became integrated.
In an interview in 2016, Frank Sinatra, Jr. had this to say about his father:
"In the days when Las Vegas began to become popular, the black performers could play in showrooms, but they couldn't stay in the hotel. And it was Frank Sinatra who went to the board of directors, who had rather shady pasts, and he said, 'Are you guys going to come into the twentieth century, or aren't you?'...Somebody said 'Well, we have white people, we have black people." Sinatra, the story goes, said to them, 'The money is green. How about that?' And they began to look at each other and the wheels were turning, and because of Sammy (Davis), Las Vegas became integrated."
Sinatra was also big-time supporter of Martin Luther King and helped him raise money to support the Civil Rights Movement by headlining fundraisers. In 1958, he wrote in Ebony Magazine: “A friend to me has no race, no class and belongs to no minority. My friendships are formed out of affection, mutual respect and a feeling of having something in common. These are eternal values that cannot be classified.”
