04/26/2026
His name was Ed Sullivan, he was the very first civil rights activist on television. He was born to an Irish America family in 190, Harlem. He was taught the same stereotypes that had caused immense pain to humanity and destroyed many innocent lives.
As soon as he went to school and started playing with Black athletes he realized that all the stereotypes are based on deception, mental illusion and have no relation to reality.
He, for sometime worked as a columnist and loved vaudevillie, and nightclubs. One day, a car accident deformed his body. His tooth was broken and his posture became stiff.
However, it was blessing in disguise that the posture and voice became his trademark.
He could not speak well let alone dance and sing . Once he announced, "Right here in our audience, the late Irving Berlin." Berlin was very much alive.
The real story starts When his Toast of the Town premiered on CBS on June 20, 1948, Sullivan's very first episode featured W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues followed by the Ink Spots.
In a country where segregation was not only alive but kicking in theaters, bars and restaurants were all segregated. He made a revolutionary choice of inviting Black artists as stars not as common token people.
In a country where restaurants, water fountains, and theaters were still legally segregated, Sullivan quietly made a choice that would define his life's work. He booked Black artists not as tokens, but as stars.
His invitation, for 23 years included: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and the Jackson and so on.
His invitation was not merely presence on stage of stars but his warmly welcomed and held them in high steem, he shook their hands and kissed their cheeks. Hold them in arms, he equated respect he shwon to the white stars. It was radical in the America of 1950s. Other people who invited Black stars maintained distance, no touching just performance and leaving the stage, no warm welcome.
His top sponsor Lincoln Mercury did not like it and filed many complaints against Ed Sullivan. Sullivan embraced Pearl Bailey over their objections. Hate mail arrived. His response was simple. He booked more Black performers. He once said, "Bigotry and intolerance, racial or religious hate and discrimination, are spiritual acts of treason."
Then there was Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
Robinson had been the highest-paid Black performer of century. Over the course of his career he earned more than two million dollars at that time. He had taught Sammy Davis Jr. And Ann miller. He was so generous that he had given all of his money to needy people. But on November 25, 1949, he died without a single penny. Ed Sullivan stepped in, he not only paid for funeral but also sought support from Shirley Temple and Fred Astaire. Robinson's body lay in repose at the 369th Infantry Regiment Armory in Harlem.
Thirty-two thousand people filed past his casket. Harlem schools closed for half a day so children could attend. The funeral was broadcast over the radio. Honorary pallbearers included Duke Ellington, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, and Irving Berlin.
Sullivan did not do it for publicity. He simply believed his friend deserved a dignified burial.
Harry Belafonte later said Sullivan's show "helped awaken America to a different vision of what Black people can be so that when these images came on the screen later of abuse and the beatings as people protested in the South, they had these other images" to counterbalance the hatred.
Diahann Carroll, who appeared on the show nine times, told her daughter, "You could build a whole career around the exposure you got on Sullivan."
Motown founder Berry Gordy said simply, "For Motown, The Ed Sullivan Show, to us, was the ultimate."
CBS cancelled the show in 1971 to allow younger audience, he refused to record the farewell episode and after only three years he died.
For years his name did not appear, even his family did not mention his achievement and struggles. Margo Precht Speciale, his granddaughter did no like his stiffness but she was left stunned when she read an article about him calling him a civil rights trailblazer and was stunned. She partnered with Suzanne Kay, Diahann Carroll's daughter, to tell share his story in public. Finally, In 2025, Netflix released their documentary "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan."
Though he did no March, make speeches but he made a choice every week from 1948 to 1971 to respect every black star equally and with respect that they deserved.
Ed Sullivan never made speeches about civil rights. He never marched. He never positioned himself as an activist. He simply made a choice every single week, from 1948 to 1971, to treat Black artists exactly the way he treated everyone else.
That was his revolution extending a handshake, sharing a stage, and quietly choosing decency over and over until the world starts to change.
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