The Poitier family of north Atlanta

Sidney Poitier wasn’t initially a fan of Atlanta when he traveled through what was then Atlanta Municipal Airport in the 1950s.

He had already been a lead actor in films such as “No Way Out” and “Cry, the Beloved Country,” but was in the early days of his Hollywood notoriety and had not yet become the first Black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Still, he was a recognizable star, and he arrived hungry at ATL airport after a flight from New York City.

According to his daughter — my aunt, Pamela Poitier — he stopped at The Dobbs House, a restaurant near the airport’s west gates.

“He gets a little fame, comes through Atlanta, and the restaurant at the airport wouldn’t serve him,” Pam recalled. “He was told he’d be fed only if he agreed to sit behind a screen,” she said, apparently so white customers wouldn’t see him dining in their midst.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Anyone familiar with Sidney Poitier’s character — not only the roles he played throughout his groundbreaking acting career but also what he represented as a Black man — wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he turned down the inhospitable offer from the segregated, plantation-themed restaurant, where a Black man portraying the Uncle Remus character welcomed white guests at the door.

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It was one of many racist experiences the Miami-born, Bahamian movie star endured that made him avoid not just Atlanta but the Southeast. In the biography “Sidney Poitier: The Long Journey,” by Carolyn H. Ewers, he is quoted expressing such sentiment in 1961.

“I have a particular aversion to the Deep South and I don’t go around down there. I go other places,” Poitier said.

Despite those feelings, it would be love that kept him from avoiding Georgia — specifically a large cluster of his family who made metro Atlanta their home.

Credit: Mike Jordan

Poitier’s daughter, Beverly Henderson, was the first to visit Atlanta on her own terms.

In her mid-teens, while attending boarding school in Massachusetts, Aunt Bev learned that Dr. King had been killed in Memphis and remembers being devastated at the news. “A couple friends and I felt that we needed to be at the funeral to represent ourselves and our school.”

After she shared her plans with her dad, who was already in Atlanta for the memorial service, he offered a deal. “If you can figure out how to get there and do it on your own, you can go,” he said.

Aunt Bev and a friend traveled by bus, plane and train to Atlanta. They arrived around 1 a.m. and checked into a nearby motel, where she called Poitier to say she’d arrived.

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He sent a car for the young women and checked them into the hotel where he was staying. They all went to the funeral the next day.

“I remember being on a bus with all the celebrities. I remember Stevie Wonder kept saying ‘Is it hot in here?’ Then we marched with them, from the church to Morehouse, in the heat. One thing that struck me was we saw someone in a limo, and someone rolled down the window and it was Betty Shabazz. She was like, ‘Beverly? What are you doing here?’”

Only three years earlier, Shabazz’s husband, Malcolm X, had also been assassinated. While there were efforts to pit King and Malcolm X against each other, a bond existed between their families and those of other prominent Black leaders like Poitier.

“It was, like, a moment. Another leader had been struck down, and here we are.”

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Following her college graduation, Beverly moved to Dallas, Texas, where she lived with her first husband and their two daughters, Kamaria and Aisha. After divorcing, Aunt Bev and her daughters moved to Atlanta, where she worked as a writer and producer for Turner Broadcasting, the Screen Actors Guild and the Trumpet Awards. She lives today with her husband, Frank, in Cartersville.

Aisha LaBarrie is an academic adviser at Georgia Tech, her undergraduate alma mater. She remembers being with the family for the dedication of Poitier’s marker at the International Civil Rights Walk of the Fame at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. She also attended the 2007 Candle in the Dark gala at Morehouse, where Poitier and fellow actor Roscoe Lee Browne were honored.

LaBarrie fondly remembers her grandfather’s 70th birthday party at Beverly’s home in Roswell, and him attending her and her sister’s graduations from Lassiter High School.

He was there for her wedding at Villa Christina, and she remembers how proud he was to meet his first great-granddaughter, Ayele, at her Ghanian “outdooring” dedication ceremony at LaBarrie’s home in Mableton.

Credit: Mike Jordan

He also loved holding court during large family dinners at restaurants like Pricci and Veni Vidi Vici, not far from the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, where he preferred to stay when in town.

“He was very culinary-bougie,” LaBarrie said. “We always used to go to nice restaurants, but it was always very traditional, sitting around the table where you were told things like how to carry yourself, in addition to a lot of fun and jokes. No matter where we were, those meals were very cultural. Everybody talked, everybody was present, everybody was involved.”

Sidney Poitier’s first wife, Juanita Hardy, was born and raised in Bridgeport, Alabama, a small town on the border of Tennessee, 35 miles east of Chattanooga. Her lifelong friend, Frances Jean Walker, my grandmother, was raised directly across the street on Aldhouse Avenue. The two ladies, now in their 90s, belong to families in Bridgeport who have been close for generations.

Credit: Mike Jordan

They’ve lived together almost their entire lives, including today in Woodstock, where they still tell stories about meeting and befriending people like Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and even legendary New York City underworld figure Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, who would place men at their apartment in Harlem whenever he’d caught wind of threats to Poitier and his family.

“The Nanas,” as they’ve always been called, live with my aunt, Sherri Poitier. It was Sherri, Sidney’s second-youngest with Juanita, who made the first attempt at living in Atlanta. Born along with her sisters Beverly, Pamela and Gina in New York, she became a California girl during the years the family lived in Malibu.

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In her early 20s, she decided she wanted to experience Atlanta, the Black city she’d heard so much about.

She briefly moved to Atlanta in the 1960s but decided she preferred the weather and work opportunities in Los Angeles. She would move back here in 2001 after years of working for Warner Bros., in order to be closer to family.

Sherri remembers advice from her father on being confident. “He used to say, ‘Always look at people’s pupils — straight in the eye.’ He was his own individual, and he was always diplomatic. I try to keep that.”

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Gina Gouraige, who passed away in 2018, was the youngest daughter of Juanita and Sidney Poitier.

She moved to Atlanta to attend the American College of Applied Arts, where she earned a degree in fashion merchandising. Ahead of her time in making fashion-forward clothing for plus-size women, Gina had a short-lived women’s clothing line sold in Macy’s, and her father attended the red-carpet launch event, beaming with pride.

Gina and her husband, Gaetan, had three children: Guylaine and her younger brother and sister, Etienne and Gabrielle. Guylaine remembers her mother’s selflessness and her grandfather’s motivational wisdom.

“He always used to tell me ‘If I can go from being an illiterate tomato farmer in the Bahamas to becoming one of the greatest Black actors out there, you can do anything.’ That stuck with me and helps me achieve my dreams of owning a company and doing something outside the norm,” she said.

Guylaine also shared that she doesn’t picture herself remaining in Atlanta. “I’ve always wanted to get out and explore the world,” she admitted. “For some reason, in our family, we have this generational curse of anybody who moves to Atlanta never leaves.”

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That’s not the case for Pam, who lived in Atlanta for more than a decade in the 1990s, working with the King Center and for Xernona Clayton at Turner Broadcasting. She was a producer of programs and events, such as a salute to Coretta Scott King, and a televised event marking the first time the MLK holiday was celebrated after becoming a federal holiday.

“Everybody and their mama was there,” Pam remembers. “Stevie Wonder, Kenny Loggins, Gladys Knight and even Usher, who was all of 12 or 13 maybe, sleeping on a chair.”

Pam found herself wanting to leave Atlanta one day and made the call to move to family land on Cat Island in the Bahamas, where she lives today. She visits often but doesn’t miss living here.

“It’s a little too inconvenient and I can’t stand the traffic,” she said over the phone. “It’s Chocolate City, the mecca of the South — a big old country town. It’s nice enough, but it could be nicer,” she added.

Later in his career, Sidney Poitier picked up work in Atlanta, acting in and directing movies and TV shows such as “Let’s Do It Again” in the 1970s, and “The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn” in 1999. The body of his work inspired Atlanta movie mogul Tyler Perry to name one of his studio soundstages in the actor’s honor.

In March 2022, two months after Poitier died at 94, Perry called Poitier his “north star” while presenting at the Academy Awards ceremony. “When he stood on that stage, he did more than shatter a barrier. He stood there for all that came before him and sparked the dreams of all who followed.”

Credit: ALLEN SULLIVAN / aesullivan@ajc.com

Poitier was also a big supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was visibly and financially committed to its mission. While there are widespread photos of him attending the March on Washington with other famous actors and leaders of the time, there are legendary, lesser-known stories, such as the time Poitier and his lifelong friend, Harry Belafonte, delivered cash to civil rights leaders in Mississippi after being chased by cars full of suspected Ku Klux Klan members.

Ambassador Andrew Young remembers a special night at Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency in 1967, not long after the hotel opened. The event was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s 10th anniversary convention.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in attendance (it would be his final SCLC board meeting before his assassination, Young said), and Poitier was billed to deliver a speech after a performance by Aretha Franklin.

“It was an overloaded performance. Aretha Franklin came and she sang her whole songbook,” Young recalled with a laugh. “Martin had preached, and he preached too long, as if he knew this might be his last big speech in Atlanta.”

Young said Poitier didn’t get his turn at the microphone until after 11 p.m. “Sidney spoke for a half hour. He did not cut his speech short. He spoke until almost 12, and nobody moved.”

Credit: Archive Photos

According to Young, Poitier generally met with King, Ralph David Abernathy and Joseph Lowery on movement issues. “I was way down the line in terms of leaders,” he said. “I was just a youngster, so I was always in the room but it’s not as if he was meeting with me.”

Still, Young admired Poitier from a distance.

“He was a prince of a man. He was always a gentleman, always gracious and humble. He had a saintly quality about him.”

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As for my relationship with “Papa,” it goes back to Bridgeport and my grandmother Frances, who we affectionately call “Mama Jean.” After becoming pregnant with my mother, she found herself alone when my maternal grandfather left Bridgeport unannounced and started a new life in Arkansas.

My mother, born Constance Walker, was just starting elementary school when Mama Jean was asked by Juanita’s mother to move to New York with Juanita and Sidney, who needed help raising the kids while Sidney continued to pursue a burgeoning acting career. My grandmother agreed, and Mom would live with my great-grandmother in Bridgeport during the school year, but on the first day of summer she would fly out to be with the Poitier family in New York and would travel the world like one of his daughters, and would be identified as such by the media.

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He paid for her college education and visited Middle Tennessee State University when she became a charter member of the school’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Mom, who like Papa died in 2022, is also mentioned in Ewers’ biography of Sidney.

“She doesn’t have a father anymore, and I consider her like my own,” he said.

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Papa not only loved Mom, he extended his embrace to me and treated me like a grandson.

He always showed a deep interest in what I had to say, even back when I was just another goofy kid. He often hosted my cousins and I during childhood summer trips to stay with him, his second wife Joanna and my aunts Anika and Sydney at his home in Beverly Hills.

He also caused quite a scene when he showed up to my high school graduation in 1995. Mom and I never bragged about our closeness to him, so it was a surprise for a city like Huntsville, Ala.

Credit: Mike Jordan

More valuable than his public displays of affection were our private conversations.

For decades he was a mentor who gave countless hours of his time and attention when I needed help figuring out the world, especially in my 20s. I asked him often for advice, which he gave unabashedly.

He also listened and laughed, and offered a sounding board for some of my better (and worst) ideas. He was patient with me as I matured from a toddler into a married father with a successful career. I always believed he took a fancy to me because there were so many ladies in the family and he appreciated having dude energy around.

Today, a few days after what would have been his 98th birthday, it is a blessing to have so much family around. My aunts Beverly, Pam and Sherri, along with Aunt J (Juanita) and Mama Jean, and all my cousins running around or plotting their escape from Atlanta, are part of what keeps me here.

Credit: Mike Jordan

Today, around my neck, I wear a gold charm embedded with his fingerprint, which each of his daughters received months after his death but Mom never got to wear.

It’s an honor to be part of his family legacy.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

This year’s AJC Black History Month series, marking its 10th year, focuses on the role African Americans played in building Atlanta and the overwhelming influence that has had on American culture. These daily offerings appear throughout February in the paper and on AJC.com and AJC.com/news/atlanta-black-history.

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About the Author

Mike Jordan

Mike Jordan is senior editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Black culture brand, UATL. A longtime culture journalist, his work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, National Geographic, Rolling Stone and others. Jordan won the James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award and was a 2023 finalist.