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Throughout his life, Frank Sinatra, the musician and actor, was involved in many different political activities in the United States. He also held positive views toward African Americans at a time when much of the United States still had segregation. ==Political activities, 1944–69== Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life. Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897, respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party ward leader. After sending a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in support of the president's stewardship, Sinatra was invited to meet Roosevelt at the White House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's voter registration drives, and heavily campaigned for the Democrats in the 1944 presidential election. He contributed $7500 directly to the Democratic campaign fund, and was quoted by a Democratic flyer as saying "() will make Young America's dream a reality".He made national broadcasts on the radio in support, spoke at Carnegie Hall, and spoke at Madison Square Garden on October 29, 1944, a week before the election. According to Jo Carroll Silvers, in his younger years Sinatra had "ardent liberal" sympathies, and was "so concerned about poor people that he was always quoting Henry Wallace". He was outspoken on racism, particularly towards blacks and Italians from early on. In November 1945 Sinatra was invited by the mayor of Gary, Indiana to try to settle a strike by white students of Froebel High School against the "Pro-Negro" policies of the new principal. Sinatra outraged the mayor with his remarks about how to address the problem, which he compared it to the racial policies of Nazism, and criticized the people involved in the dispute who had nothing to do with the school. His comments, while praised by liberal publications, led to accusations by some that he was a Communist. Sinatra responded by saying: "I don't like Communists, and I have nothing against any organization except the Knights of Columbus". In the 1948 presidential election, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson.〔 Of all the U.S. Presidents he associated with during his career, he was closest to John F. Kennedy.〔 Sinatra often invited Kennedy to Hollywood and Las Vegas, and two would womanize and enjoy parties together. Kennedy enjoyed hearing inside gossip about the stars and their romances from him. In 1960 Sinatra and his friends — Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. - actively campaigned for Kennedy throughout the United States;〔 A specially recorded version of "High Hopes" with lyrics praising Kennedy, frequently was played during the 1960 presidential election.〔 In January 1961 Sinatra and Peter Lawford organized the Inaugural Gala in Washington, DC, held on the evening before President Kennedy was sworn into office.〔 The event, featuring many notable entertainment figures, was an enormous success, raising a large amount of money for the Democratic Party. Sinatra's move toward the Republican party seems to have begun when he was snubbed by President Kennedy in favor of Bing Crosby, a fellow singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs, in 1962. Kennedy had planned to stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided to stay with Crosby because of Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime.〔 Sinatra had invested a lot of his own money in upgrading the facilities at his home in anticipation of the President's visit, fitting it with a heliport and building a large guest house to seat 40 people. Sinatra was fuming and "deeply humiliated" at being rejected, smashing up the concrete of the heliport himself with a sledgehammer. He blamed Lawford and Bobby Kennedy for the decision, and created a rift between Lawford and the other Rat Pack members, cutting him out of subsequent films. Yet Sinatra never said a bad word about Kennedy himself, and despite the humiliation and change in political affiliation, he still mourned when Kennedy was assassinated.〔 According to his daughter Nancy, Sinatra learned of Kennedy's assassination while filming a scene of ''Robin and the 7 Hoods'' in Burbank.〔 Sinatra quickly finished filming the scene, returned to his Palm Springs home, and sobbed in his bedroom for three days.〔 When he learned that Kennedy's killer Lee Harvey Oswald had watched ''Suddenly'' just days before the assassination, he withdrew it from circulation, and it only became distributed again in the late 1980s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Political life of Frank Sinatra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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