painful, into poetry, which for various reasons he found both challenging
and quite fascinating. 14 However, for publicity reasons the president liked
to surround himself with the stars of the entertainment world, and these
included many African-American artists. Mahalia Jackson, Billy Eckstine,
and Nat King Cole campaigned for him during the hotly contested 1960
presidential race. There were five inauguration balls on 20 January 1961.
Count Basie (1904 1984), whose wife Kate had been very active in the
Kennedy campaign, played the one in the Armory district.15 Ella Fitzgerald
(1917 1996) flew in from Australia for the inaugural and Sidney Poitier
dropped his acting chores in the movie Paris Blues for the occasion. Other
artists who performed at the inaugural were Nat King Cole (1919 1965)
and Harry Belafonte (b. 1927).
After eight years of Eisenhower, blues singer Memphis Slim (5 Peter
Chatman, 1915 1988) was relieved to see that the Democrats were finally
back in power again. His  The Big Race from November 1960 employs
the well-known animal symbolism of the Republican elephant and the
Democratic donkey. Slim declares that he had always voted Democrat in
the past, and that on this occasion Kennedy s intervention in the field of
civil rights was the decisive factor.
Well, we finally won the big race,
Where the elephant, for eight years, has been taking the pace.
So we finally won the big race!
You know, up stepped a donkey, whom I ve always betted on,
To take over the victory, and bring everything back home.
But you know, we had a good jockey, a jockey who was willing to
fight,
And take the inside track, and come on out front with that civil rights.
Yes, we ve been running a long, long time,
But oh, happy days, man, you know, when we can go to any track,
And sit in any grandstand and be served,
And be accepted cheerfully, which we so rightly deserve!
Tell  em a little about it, fellows!
J F K S a y s I  v e G o t t o G o [ 2 5 ]