1968 January 18

African-American Jazz Singer Eartha Kitt Confronts LBJ at White House Over Vietnam

 

Eartha Kitt, a noted African American jazz singer, stood up at a White House luncheon on this day and protested the Vietnam War, causing a sensation.

Kitt originally declined the invitation to the luncheon, thinking it would be frivolous, but she changed her mind after the social secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson begged her to attend.

The luncheon was supposedly devoted to the problem of juvenile delinquency, and Kitt became irritated when the women in attendance mainly gossiped about trivial matters. After dessert was served, President Lyndon Johnson entered room. After Johnson spoke, Kitt stood up and asked him “What are we going to do? [about juvenile delinquency]. The president pointed to expanded Social Security programs and then left.

The women at the luncheon then began discussing Lady Bird’s plan to “beautify America.” When the First Lady called on Kitt, she stood up and declared “I think we have missed the main point of this luncheon,” and then talked about the Vietnam War. “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she declared. At the time, the U.S. had 500,00 troops in Vietnam. Lady Bird was visibly shaken by the unprecedented challenge.

After the luncheon, there was no limousine to pick up Kitt, even though the White House had arranged for one to bring her to the event. Other forms of retaliation followed. Kitt found it difficult to get bookings at night clubs and other events.

The Washington Post reported the event the next day with a story headlined, “Eartha Kitt Confronts the Johnsons”

A week later, the C.I.A., responding to a request from the Secret Service submitted a three-page “Confidential” report alleging unverified derogatory gossip about Ms. Kitt’s morals and private life. The report claimed that in 1956, Ms. Kitt’s “loose morals” were the “talk of Paris.” There was no information in the report regarding possible contacts between Ms. Kitt and foreign agents. Contacted by the New York Times, which had obtained a copy of the report in January 1975, Ms. Kitt called the report “disgusting” and gave the Times permission to report “as much of the report” as it “a saw fit.” She said she had led “a very clean life” and had “nothing to hide.”

Read: Eartha Kitt, Eartha Kitt: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989)

Learn more about Eartha Kitt’s life.

For a great perspective on the “long Sixties:” Tom Hayden, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (2009)

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