It’s exciting writing a book about Diana Sands for so many reasons.
Steve Willis and I are excited by how plugged in she was to her time and place.
About her affair with Dr. Alvin Poussaint in 1968, we write:
“Pouissant’s racial and political consciousness was strong. For two years,
beginning in 1965, he had been the Southern Field director of the Medical
Committee for Human Rights, providing medical care to civil rights workers,
accompanying them on every march—he’d gone on as many as fifty over the
course of two years. And now Diana’s circle of acquaintances and friends exposed
Poussaint to a new threshold of social and political activism. She took him to meet
Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow, at Shabazz’s apartment in Harlem.
Despite James Baldwin’s affair with her ex-husband, Diana remained friends with
the writer. She was at this time participating in fund-raising dinners at Baldwin’s
NYC apartment, hosted by Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, where money was
raised for organizations like the Southern Leadership Council. Diana and Robert
Hooks were among a core group of actors who entertained the guests with
recitations of Baldwin’s work.”