In 1956 the star singer and pianist Nat King Cole became the host of a weekly ... He wrote that For 13 months, I was the Jackie Robinson of television. I was the pioneer, the test case, the ...

Despite his trailblazing role, Nat King Cole was no activist. Wilkins says Cole could not have gotten where he did displaying the political engagement, or the anger, of a Jackie Robinson.

Cole even hosted an elegant television variety show from November 1956 to December 1957. If Jackie Robinson broke baseball's segregation barrier in the late 1940s, then Nat King Cole did the same for ...

Josefina Santos for The New York Times Supported by By Alan Light In November 1956, Nat King Cole was given ... (He referred to himself as “the Jackie Robinson of television.”) ...

Musical legend Nat "King" Cole was born Nathaniel ... which he met his first wife, Nadine Robinson—he formed a three-piece jazz band called the King Cole Swingsters, named after the British ...

Nat King Cole ... the song here 8. Cole credited his mother with his love of music. “Mom was the only music teacher I ever had,” he once said. 9. Cole married Nadine Robinson, a dancer ...