An impressive credential to the performer’s name is that he and his wife were the very first black couple to spend the night in the White House. The invite was extended by Richard Nixon, who admired everything Davis Jr. had done for civil rights.
He and the president actually wound up becoming friends, despite their differences in political parties.
A Troubled Life
One may assume that being the child of a celebrity, adopted or not, means you’re set for life. Unfortunately for Mark, that’s not exactly how it works. Perhaps his father would have left him his estate when he passed, but the IRS took it before his family could.
Mark has lived a regular life, working retail and trying to keep his own two sons afloat. He has also struggled with substance abuse and was in a long cycle of constantly trying to recover.
The Upper Hand
Once Sammy Davis Jr. found his fame, he no longer felt like hotel owners who used to refuse him service years before had the upper hand. This time, the power was in his hands, and when racially segregated establishments would ask him to perform – he turned them down.
Because of that, bar and club owners from coast to coast began to integrate their venues. Davis Jr. was a huge supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was solely responsible for who knows how many clubs beginning to integrate their establishments!
Deep State Regrets
Unfortunately, Nixon’s presidency will forever be seen as tied to the Watergate scandal and his resulting resignation. Because of everything that went down when he was in office, Davis Jr. later admitted to his regret for supporting the president.
In fact, he, like many other celebrities at the time, started to receive some pretty harsh threats because of it. The threats on Davis Jr. were multi-faceted, stemming from not only his political ties but also, once again, due to his race.
In the Mail
Many of the threats on the entertainer were from people that were angry he was a black man who supported this Republican, white president. But this wasn’t the first time Sammy Davis Jr. would receive aggressive threats in his mail.
After he coupled up with Kim Novak in ’57 he started receiving them left and right from the mob. But no matter what came at him, the entertainer kept trying to simply live his life and push through all of the racial barriers that society had set in front of him.