text: Sullivan defied pressure to exclude Black entertainers or to avoid interacting with them on screen. "Sullivan had to fend off his hard-won sponsor, Ford's Lincoln dealers, after kissing Pearl Bailey on the cheek and daring to shake Nat King Cole's hand," Nachman wrote. According to biographer Jerry Bowles, "Sullivan once had a Ford executive thrown out of the theatre when he suggested that Sullivan stop booking so many [B]lack acts. And a dealer in Cleveland told him 'We realize that you got to have niggers on your show. But do you have to put your arm around Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson at the end of his dance?' Sullivan had to be physically restrained from beating the man to a pulp." Sullivan later raised money to help pay for Robinson's funeral. At a CBS affiliates meeting in the late 1950s, several Southern station managers complained that Sullivan was booking too many "negroes".  Furious, Sullivan referred to the comments in his presentation and said that any station manager that feels this way is under no obligation to carry the show.  There were no cancellations. Sullivan said: "As a Catholic, it was inevitable that I would despise intolerance, because Catholics suffered more than their share of it. As I grew up, the causes of minorities were part and parcel of me. Negroes and Jews were the minority causes closest at hand. I need no urging to take a plunge in and help."