Oprah Winfrey attends the world premiere of the Sidney Poitier documentary"Sidney" at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 10, 2022.Oprah Winfrey attends the world premiere of the Sidney Poitier documentary"Sidney" at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 10, 2022.
“For many people that was their first relationship with a Black person,” she said of seeing Poitier on the big screen. “White people did not know Black people other than as maids or servants.” As a detective in the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” Poitier’s character, Virgil Tibbs, is questioned by the white police chief in the US South, who disrespectfully asks what they call him back in Philadelphia. Poitier, standing up for himself, famously and strongly responds “They call me Mr. Tibbs.”
Narrated by Poitier, the film paints the picture of a family man with tremendous self respect, emphasized by how his strong upbringing made him the man he was.