Posted on 12/14/2016 1:56:33 PM PST by naturalman1975
ER Braithwaite, the Guyanese author of To Sir, With Love, has died at his home in Maryland at the age of 104.
Born in Guyana on 27 June 1912, Eustace Edward Ricardo Braithwaite was the child of privileged parents, both graduates of Oxford University. His father was a diamond miner while his mother raised the family. During the second world war, he joined the Royal Air Force to fight as a pilot before going on to Cambridge to read physics. He later said that he experienced no racial prejudice within the RAF.
On graduating, he found himself barred from work as an engineer because of racism. Unable to find an alternative, he took a job as a teacher at St George-in-the-East school in London’s East End, which was recovering from the battering it had taken during the war. This experience formed the basis of his autobiographical novel To Sir With Love, his 1959 book later adapted into a film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier.
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The book also contrasted his experience of race relations in Britain with those in the US, where he studied before joining the RAF. He wrote: “The rest of the world in general and Britain in particular are prone to point an angrily critical finger at American intolerance, forgetting that in its short history as a nation it has granted to its Negro citizens more opportunities for advancement and betterment, per capita, than any other nation in the world with an indigent Negro population.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
(Perhaps part of Braithwaite's legacy is the idea that ex-military people make good teachers)
Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn’t easy, but I’ll try
If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters
That would soar a thousand feet high ‘To Sir, With Love’
The time has come for closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong and weak from strong
That’s a lot to learn, but what can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather you let me give my heart ‘To Sir, With Love’
Had no idea this author was still alive till now.
That book, later the movie and later the song all had a strong impact during the changing times of the 60’s.
Petula Clarks second greatest hit, the first being Downtown.
Actually, To Sir w/Love was sung by Lulu.
I had not even thought about Lulu in over 40 years.
[Downtown]
George: Downtown?
Mr. Wilhelm: There’s your answer!
Jerry: The Petula Clark song?
George: The Broadway District?
What other band appeared in the movie?
I read that one when it came out, and thought it was very well done. Although my specialty was Renaissance literature, Milton, Donne, and Shakespeare, I was an inveterate reader, and got interested in colonial and African-American literature. I taught courses in both in the early days, before it became evident that a white male would not be allowed to teach those things.
My memory is bad in my latter years, so I don’t remember those books very well, but I do remember enjoying that one.
“What other band appeared in the movie?”
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The Human Beinz -
:D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4L_RorlztM
That was the fictional name of the band in the movie, but it was a real band that had some hits in the 60s.
To be honest, I don’t remember. What I do clearly recall about that movie, is that it made Sidney Poitier an even bigger star than he already was. There weren’t many black movie stars back then who were dramatic actors. Even less who were able to carry a movie in the starring role. Most, black actors of that time were like Sammy Davis Jr., comedians, jazz musicians or ensemble performers who worked as part of a troupe.
Bill Cosby was a big action star at that time with a hit tv show called “I Spy”. But of course he was best known as a comedian.
I remember that show. “I Spy” was a real action series with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.
“That was the fictional name of the band in the movie, but it was a real band that had some hits in the 60s.”
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Actually my link is to a “mash-up” re-mix of Sidney Poitier & Judy Geeson dancing to the Humana Beinz song “Nobody But Me”. The name of the real group in the film was the “Mindbenders”. Don’t know the name of the real song, tho.
I am so sorry that Bill Cosby will end his career in such a sad state. He who provided so many laughs and moments of inspiration. Strange that Cosby is trashed by most of his public, while Bill Clinton is still aparrently the Cat’s Meow, even after the ‘Victim Panel’ was assembled during the presidential debate.
The Dems have become very adapt at not seeing what is not expedient to their overall cause. Willful blindness. Republicans can be the same way (about the Bush Family), but the GOP ‘crimes’ are less alarming and not as henious by comparison.
I think he knows John Voight, the Periodontist!
Yes, thank goodness he was able to blaze the trail for talents like Writer/Producer/Actor Fred Williamson.
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