When I first learned that Ossie Davis had died, I thought first of Ruby Dee, his wife. And I also thought about Dick Gregory, Harry Belafonte, Curtis Mayfield, James Baldwin and Paul Robeson. They are all special people. They’re special not because of their professions, but because they were willing to risk their professional success to help people who needed them the most.

Paul Robeson was a quintessential Renaissance man. At Rutgers University, he was twice named to the All-America football team, received the Phi Beta Kappa key and graduated Valedictorian of his class. He was internationally known for his singing and acting. He was a freedom fighter, declaring: “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”

Long before there was a Def Comedy Jam, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy or J. Anthony Brown, there was Dick Gregory. He was at the zenith of his career, making $1 million a year, when he left the stage and headed south to help Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was a teenager when he came to my hometown, Tuscaloosa, Ala., to help us desegregate the city bus line.

Harry Belafonte was another entertainer who marched with Dr. King and helped raise millions for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Curtis Mayfield’s songs were so pro-Black that many radio stations in the South wouldn’t play his music. Still, he urged “we people who are darker than blue” to “Keep on Pushing.”

James Baldwin was always pointing out America’s shortcomings in his writings. Like Belafonte and others, he was part of the Selma to Montgomery, Ala. march that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

But it was Ossie Davis who best merged art with politics. He and Ruby Dee were among the first to defend Robeson when he was falsely accused by Sen. Joe McCarthy of being a communist.

Writing in “With Ossie and Ruby,” the couple’s autobiography, Davis said: “When Jackie Robinson had gone down to Washington to testify against Paul Robeson, it hurt us deeply. We understood that he did what he thought he had to do. How could he turn against Paul, who had been so instrumental in getting Jackie admitted into the game?

“And Jackie wasn’t the only one. There was Langston Hughes, who had to
publicly eat his words to square himself with the [McCarthy] House Committee; there was Josh White; and there was Canada Lee, who couldn’t find a job anywhere and died of a broken heart. Some of these black heroes had to publicly attack Paul Robson, or at least swear that Paul had duped them. We thought about it, the agony and shame of it all…”

Davis would never stoop to such activities. He eulogized Malcolm X when it was unpopular to do so. He also spoke at the 1963 March on Washington and five years later at Dr. King’s funeral. The fact that he asked to speak at the funerals of an integrationist and one-time separatist attests to his ability to move easily between both worlds.

With the exceptions of a few artists such as Belafonte, Dick Gregory and Danny Glover, most of today’s athletes and entertainers don’t demonstrate the courage and principles that became the hallmark of Ossie Davis.

Today’s stars tend to be more interested in landing a contract to promote gym shoes, sodas or burgers than helping their people. In fact, Michael Jordan was asked why he wasn’t more political and he replied, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

Some are so disconnected from reality that they think they can get elected to public office as Republicans. Basketball great Charles Barkley flirted with the idea of running for governor on the GOP ticket in Alabama before being talked out of it; Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, is looking into the possibility of running for governor of Pennsylvania as a Republican. Singer Brian McKnight made a fool of himself when he told Tom Joyner two years ago that he does not vote. Strangely, McKnight cared enough about politics to perform at the Republican National Convention. James Brown admits in his autobiography he campaigned for Richard Nixon at a time that he was unregistered to vote.

Ossie Davis would be a giant under any circumstances. He is an even taller one when compared to the celebrity lightweights who shun civil rights. Like Dallas Cowboys Linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson said about Terry Bradshaw, those airheads couldn’t spell cat if you spotted them the “c” and the “a.”