Black History Month: First Interracial Kiss on Network Television

I was looking at a long list of African-American firsts on Wikipedia and I saw this under the year 1967: "First African-American interracial kiss on network television: entertainers Nancy Sinatra (white) and Sammy Davis, Jr. (African American) on Sinatra's variety special Movin' With Nancy, airing December 11 on NBC."

When I read that, for some reason I imagined that it would be a passionate kiss in a love scene. Clearly I wasn't thinking. I forgot for a moment that a lot of people resist change and have to be eased into something new, even if it's not a sin, and even if it doesn't hurt anybody. So, I looked on YouTube expecting to see a passionate kiss between Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. (assuming they would be playing the roles of two characters in love). Instead, I found a photographer and a model dancing and having fun together like friends. At the end of the video, Nancy Sinatra  holds up the photo that Sammy Davis Jr. took of her, and he gives her a friendly kiss on the cheek. 

Wow! Was I blown away! Not because it was a passionate kiss, but because it *wasn't* a passionate kiss. I realized that people of two different races hadn't even been able to give each other even a friendly kiss on the cheek yet up to that point. Think of all the episodes of all the TV shows that had been made by then. And yet, there was no interracial kiss of any sort before then. Not even two neighbors greeting each other. Nothing. All I can say is, thank God for the Civil Rights movement!

I read about  "Movin' With Nancy" and discovered that Sammy Davis Jr. and Nancy Sinatra had to SNEAK that kiss in. Such an innocent, friendly kiss had to be SNEAKED in. They waited to do that scene until Sammy Davis had to leave for another job, so there was no time left to re-shoot it.

I give Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra a lot of credit for creating a plan for making that first interracial kiss on TV happen. 

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_firsts

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movin'_With_Nancy

Thank you to WellExxxcuuuseMeee for posting "the first interracial kiss" on TV on YouTube.