Editing Nat King Cole (section)

====Criticism and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement====
[[Thurgood Marshall]], then-the chief legal counsel of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], said "All Cole needs to complete his role as an [[Uncle Tom]] is a [[banjo]]." [[Roy Wilkins]], executive secretary of the NAACP, wrote him a telegram that said:
{{blockquote|You have not been a crusader or engaged in an effort to change the customs or laws of the South. That responsibility, newspapers quote you as saying, you leave to the other guys. That attack upon you clearly indicates that organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do. This is a fight which none of us can escape. We invite you to join us in a crusade against racism.<ref name="Altschuler2003">{{cite book|last=Altschuler|first=Glenn C.|title=All Shook Up: How Rock 'n' Roll Changed America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lMyC2FndXwkC|access-date=February 19, 2019|year= 2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0198031918|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806202102/https://books.google.com/books?id=lMyC2FndXwkC|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

''[[The Chicago Defender]]'' said that Cole's performances for all-white audiences were an insult to his race. The ''[[New York Amsterdam News]]'' said that "thousands of Harlem blacks who have worshiped at the shrine of singer Nat King Cole turned their backs on him this week as the noted crooner turned his back on the NAACP and said that he will continue to play to [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] audiences". To play "Uncle Nat's" discs, wrote a commentator in ''The American Negro'', "would be supporting his 'traitor' ideas and narrow way of thinking".

Deeply hurt by the criticism in the black press, Cole was chastened. Emphasizing his opposition to [[racial segregation]] "in any form", he agreed to join other entertainers in boycotting segregated venues. He paid $500 to become a lifetime member of the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and visible participant in the [[civil rights movement]], playing an important role in planning the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]] in 1963.<ref name="Gilbert1988">{{cite book|last=Gilbert|first=James|title=A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSbMWznYmFAC|year=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195363562|page=9|access-date=February 19, 2019|archive-date=January 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119173538/https://books.google.com/books?id=PSbMWznYmFAC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sussman">{{cite book |last1=Sussman |first1=Warren |editor1-last=May |editor1-first=Lary |title=Recasting America |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226511757 |chapter=Did Success Spoil the United States |year=1989 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/recastingamerica00gres }}</ref>