SIDNEY POITIER
October 23, 1971

The first black actor to win the Academy Award, Sidney Poitier, is pictured here inside Richmond’s Loew’s Theater at a benefit screening of Buck and the Preacher, a western in which he co-produced, directed, and starred.

Buck and the Preacher told the story of African-Americans’ struggles in the American West after the Civil War. Their freedom continued to be contested by those who once owned them as slaves. With the help of Buck, blacks were able to create a life for themselves on their own property. Movie goers in Richmond could not have missed the film’s theme of black self-powerment. The event was in support of rebuilding Virginia Union’s Coburn Chapel, which had burned down in 1970. It cost $20 ($117 today) and was attended by a racially integrated audience of more than 1,700 people.

“Buck and the Preacher” at the Loew’s Theater on Oct. 23, 1971, Courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch; “Buck the Preacher” film poster; Sporting a “Virginia is for Lovers” button, actor Sidney Poitier entered the Loew’s Theater on Oct. 23, 1971, Courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch