[1] Bessie Allison met Charlie Buchanan, who was the director of the Savoy Ballroom, while she was working as a dancer and singer in Harlem.

Baker claimed she had been treated in a racist way and a public debate occurred in the media, with high-profile celebrities taking sides.

[4] Buchanan became interested in politics while she was campaigning for Governor Herbert H. Lehman's election to the United States Senate in 1949.

In 1954 she was approached about running as the Democratic Party candidate for the New York State Assembly from Harlem's 12th district.

In the general election, Buchanan won easily over her opponent Lucille Pickett, another black woman, 22,401 to 6,177 votes in a district heavily dominated by Democrats.

In 1960 Buchanan was selected by Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a delegate to the White House Conference on the Aged.

Instead she crossed party lines and supported Republicans Governor Rockefeller and Senator Jacob Javits in their reelection bids.