On April 10, 1956, singer Nat King Cole was performing before an all-white audience of 4,000 at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, when he was attacked and knocked down by a group of white men. Before the incident, a drunk man near the front row jeered at Cole saying, “Negro, go home” 

Cole performed in Birmingham in 1956, and due to the city’s racial segregation laws the singer was required to schedule separate shows for white and Black audiences.

The night before the Cole was attacked, he performed in front of a segregated audience in Mobile, Alabama and Cole was booed by a few scattered people in the crowd.

Police were at the Birmingham concert, and were able to arrest Cole’s attackers quickly, four men were charged with starting a riot while two others were held for questioning.  Police would later find a car containing rifles’, a blackjack and brass knuckles outside the area. After the incident at the segregated “white only” Birmingham show, Cole returned to the stage to tell the remaining audience who gave him a 10-minute standing ovation, he couldn’t finish the concert. “I just came here to entertain you,” he told the crowd. “That was what I thought you wanted. I was born in Alabama. Those folks hurt my back. I cannot continue, because I need to see a doctor.”

After being looked at by a doctor, Nat King Cole went on to perform at the show scheduled for a Black audience later that night.

Sources:

jgray@al.com, J. G. |. (2021, April 11). Nat King Cole was beaten on a Birmingham stage in 1956. al. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.al.com/news/2021/04/nat-king-cole-was-beaten-on-a-birmingham-stage-65-years-ago-today.html

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