Scott Simon of NPR told a lovely story about Frank Sinatra.
It happened in Gary, Indiana, in 1945. The high school was opening up to admit black students, and the white students were planning a walkout.
Heart-throb Frank Sinatra was invited to the high school. He gave the kids a talking-to. He told them the names he was called when he was a kid growing up in Hoboken.
And he sang “The House I Live In,” which is about prejudice.
Here are the lyrics of one stanza:
“The house I live in, a plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher, and the people that I meet
The children in the playground, the faces that I see
All races and religions, that’s America to me”
– Words by Lewis Allan, Music by Earl Robinson
My source: reader Karen Wolfe directed me to 4LAKids, written by parent Scott Folsom. Scroll down to find the story and the lyrics.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for this posting – I was one year old in Gary, Indiana then and my Mom was a fanatic Frank Sinatra fan – she must’ve been there. Nice to know this anecdote never heard before.
Frank Sinatra was of the generation that felt the sting of prejudice against Italians, just like the Irish before him, and the Jewish immigrants. Too bad so many people forget that their grandparents probably were met with suspicion and hostility, and are so willing to turn the tables on the newer immigrants. Good for him for standing up and not forgetting his roots.
Here’s a famous 10-minute short that’s a loose dramatization of this:
(you can skip right to song at 07:44)
To quote the commenters, it’s “as relevant as ever.”
Sinatra changed hotels when he learned that the hotel he was staying at (while on tour with Dean and Sammy) did not accept African Americans. In another incident at a different hotel with the same policy, the hotel made an exception for Sammy when Sinatra insisted that the hotel was discriminatory.
It did not change history, but it did make an important statement to the populist masses. Frank was not an angel, but he did have a heart.
Sinatra was cozy with the Reagans, unfortunately, but again, he was a great singer. He was also not the nicest, at least toward the end, to one of his assistants, who was male and black and who Sinatra suspected was flirting with some of Sinatra’s mistresses. Still, when a network forbid Sinatra to kiss a black female singer when doing a duet with her, it was about 6 years later when Sinatra’s efforts lead the network to allow him to do so on another variety show.
Frank was a mixed bag . . . . But I will take public education in his decades any time over what it has monstrously morphed into today any time . . . .
To the owner of this blog:
Many thanks for the posting.
😎
I am a retried elementary-school teacher, eager to share my approach to family-literacy enhancement. No fee. No donations, No advertising. My web site is a bit of a mess. You have to click “Lessons 1 & 2” on the address bar to make other lessons appear.
Lesson 2 introduces Sinatra in a way that captivates readers of all ages. And, it opens a portal to activities that develop further strengths, the development of skills ranging from “sitting still” and “paying attention” to “learning how to learn.”
Being, myself, on the verge of succumbing to the sirens’ songs of talk shows, sandwiches and naps, I am searching for a family or two, who would be swell enough to get my juices flowing, by challenging me to be of service.
I’d like to find a family that I can help to develop an individualized literacy program, a program with an ulterior motive, nurturing each child’s love of learning and self-respect.
Please look at the lessons at: http://www.rottmansclassroom.com/lessons-1–2
If you’d like to chat: denverfreeschool@gmail.com subject: literacy
Abel Meeropol was Lewis Allen’s real name. Does his name ring a bell? He adopted the Rosenberg boys. He also wrote “Strange Fruit” with Billie Holliday. Earl Robinson wrote campaign songs for FDR and other presidential nominees and was later blacklisted for his troubles. The film won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Benten,
That is fascinating! When I was in junior high school in Houston, we had an all-school assembly with a lecture on “tolerance,” and we saw the film of Frank Sinatra singing “The House I Live In.”
The next year, the far-right group Minute Women won control of the school board, and the all-school assembly watched a film about a man who was a secret agent in the Communist Party and tells how they plan to infiltrate the U.S. government and turn us all into Reds.
I was about to post this myself, Benten. Yes, he was quite the guy!
During the late 1940’s, when there were tensions between Italian-American and Puerto Rican students at Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem – at the time the largest Italian-American neighborhood in the country – Frank made an appearance to keep the peace, along with local congressman Vito Marcantonio, the most successful Left politician in this country’s history (whose career has been virtually effaced from that history, even by those on what remains of the Left). This was during the same postwar period that he filmed and recorded “The House I Live In,” which can be viewed on YouTube. There is also a beautiful version of the song by Paul Robeson that can be found there. They are both poignant to watch/listen to, as they suggest a country that could have been, had not the Cold War and Red Scare interfered.
He also almost single-handedly desegregated the casinos and hotels in Las Vegas in the ’60’s.
Sinatra was a New Deal Democrat until Bobby Kennedy started harassing him for his affiliations with wiseguys he’d grown up with and known through the music business (heavily mob-influenced and patronized at the time).
He was a piece of work, a complicated character, and a great artist.
In 1891, a mob in New Orleans slaughtered 19 defenseless and falsely accused Italian-Americans. The newspapers and townspeople celebrated the event. No one was brought to justice. My grandfather was called the “d-word” often and not allowed to swim in a public pool with “white kids”. When I was in college, a fellow student was very hostile for quite some time because I was Catholic. The Republicans nurture this fear and hatred in its current candidates. We must remain vigilant.
Yes, it was only in the post-WWII era that Italian-Americans (tentatively) achieved the Holy Grail of Whiteness in American society. My father Anglicized his name during the Great Depression, since at the time an Italian surname was a guarantee of being handed a shovel when applying for a job.
Yes, thanks for posting this. There is WA Y too much prejudice around. AS educators I feel it is our duty to counteract that and to really EDUCATE people. Prejudice, ignorance abounds.
I have found that there is beauty and truth in all ethnicities, religions, and races.
I was never a fan of Sinatra, in the minority on that one, but was ignorant of this bit of his history,
Interesting because I live very close to Gary. Moved here about a half century ago, after this must have taken place.
How nice to read all these comments.