80 years later, Sinatra's song about diversity — and an ensuing right-wing backlash — still resonates
In his inimitable baritone, Sinatra croons the title song:
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What is America to me?
A name, a map, a flag I see
A certain word, democracy!
What is America to me?
The house I live in
A plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
And the people that I meet
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me
Written by Abel Meeropol, who also wrote '
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Of course Meeropol's song represented an idealized vision of this nation — more of what it should have been, not what it actually was. It held America above its enemies who herded millions onto trains that carried them to their end in concentration camps and committed war crimes by intentionally
Still, the song was a hit for Sinatra and burnished the nation's self-image. With the world at war, America was on the right side of history. When Sinatra received his 'special' Oscar, the film was
It certainly had a tremendous impact on conservatives. They hated it.
'The tolerance Sinatra was preaching looked to Hearst's Westbrook Pegler and the America First Party's Gerald L. K. Smith and the Knights of Columbus's Gerval T. Murphy, among others, like a newfangled cover for old-fashioned socialism,' James Kaplan wrote in his 2010 Sinatra biography, 'Frank: The Voice,' mentioning some of that era's most strident right-wing agitators.
'It was directly in the wake of 'The House I Live In' that FBI interest in Sinatra perked up again,' Kaplan wrote. On Dec. 12, 1945 — Sinatra's 30th birthday — a special agent sent a memo that informed J. Edgar Hoover, then the FBI's notorious director, that 'a confidential informant had identified FRANK SINATRA, well known radio and movie star, as a member of the Communist Party.'
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Sinatra was not a member of the Communist Party. But authorities were willing to damage his reputation and career simply because he denounced religious and racist hatred.
This nearly 80-year-old story of right-wing retribution against an endorsement of diversity should be nothing more than a sad relic from a less enlightened time. Instead, it sounds like current events. The false accusations, the reputation-smearing, and especially the white grievance against racial tolerance remain far too relevant as it plays out every day with an extremist White House determined to drag this nation backward.
'The House I Live In' is an agonizing reminder that in our deeply divided house, a nation that once championed and won a war against fascists is now being led by one.
This is an excerpt from
, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham.
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Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
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