President Barack Obama talks with Poitier after presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. “It’s been said that Sidney Poitier does not make movies, he makes milestones — milestones of artistic excellence; milestones of America’s progress,” Obama said during the ceremony. “On screen and behind the camera, in films such as ‘The Defiant Ones,’ ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,’ ‘Uptown Saturday Night,’ ‘Lilies of the Field’ — for which he became the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor — Poitier not only entertained, but enlightened, shifting attitudes, broadening hearts, revealing the power of the silver screen to bring us closer together.”
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Source : Cnn
