Sidney Poitier’s Shocking Act of Defiance That Made Film History

In the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, Sidney Poitier’s detective, Virgil Tibbs, responds to a slap across the face by a wealthy white murder suspect by slapping him back and glaring at him. This norm-shattering  demand for respect by a Black character sent shockwaves through Hollywood.

The producers braced for the worst. Fearing that the scene would get the film banned in the South, they considered cutting it. They worried about how white audiences would react to seeing a Black man hit a white man, even if it was just in a movie.  Then Poitier spoke up.

Poitier knew the cultural weight of showing a Black man responding to racist violence in this way, and the significance this scene would hold with Black viewers. So he put his foot down, threatening to leave the film if the scene wasn’t kept in.

The producers folded. When Black audiences saw the scene, they cheered. It was a big win to display Black defiance on screen in this way.

That short scene changed film history. Poitier’s insistence on keeping it reflected his intolerance of film depictions of Black people as subservient and weak. It’s essential not only to be represented as we are but also to demand respect like Sidney Poitier, and his character Virgil Tibbs, did.