Harry Belafonte , who is known for breaking downracial barriersin the 1950s and for his workplace in the civil rights movement , die Tuesday , April 25 , 2023 , in Manhattan . He was 96 . His longtime spokesman , Ken Sunshine , said the campaign was congestive spunk unsuccessful person .
Harry Belafonte was bornHarold George Bellanfanti , Jr. , in Harlem , New York , March 1 , 1927 , to Jamaican immigrant parents . An award - winning recording creative person and performer of both stage and sieve , Belafonte popularized a form of Caribbean sept music calledcalypso .
But Belafonte is also remembered as an activist , telling journalistGwen Ifill in 2011that " what attract me to the arts was that I saw theater as a social force , a political force . "
At the height of his popularity , Belafonte lent the power of his celebrity — through his voice and his finances — to thecivil rights movement , anti - apartheid movementand other societal justice causes . He remain a steadfast advocate for human rights throughout his living , even serving at years 89 as one of the carbon monoxide - chairs of theWomen ’s March on Washingtonin 2017 .
Belafante, the Early Years
In 1932 , Belafonte returned to Jamaica with his mother . He remained there until 1940 when he moved back to New York City . He attended high school briefly but left to join the Navy during World War II . He was honorably unload at the end of his service , then get a line as a janitor ’s assistant .
One night a customer gift him tickets to anAmerican Negro Theaterproduction and he was hooked . He became friend with actors Paul Robeson , Ruby Dee , Ossie Davis and Sidney Portier and later earned aTony Awardfor his role in " John Murray Anderson ’s Almanac . " Belafonte made his film debut in the 1953 motion picture " Bright Road " and followed up with " Carmen Jones " in 1954 . His last film was Spike Lee ’s " BlacKkKlansman " in 2018 .
In addition to puzzle out in theater and film , Belafonte begin singing in nothingness and folk clubs in Greenwich Village . His popularity took off with the 1956 release of " Calypso , " the first record album to sell more than 1 million copy in a year . The record album admit the " Banana Boat Song ( Day - O ) " which reach No . 5 on the popular chart .
Over the class of his career , Belafonte earned11 Grammy nominating address , winning two Grammy Awards , one in 1960 for his public presentation of " Swing Dat Hammer , " the second in 1964 for Best Folk Record , " An eve with Belafonte and Makeba . " He also get the Recording Academy President ’s Merit Award in 1965 and later received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986 .
The Activist Emerges
Belafonte metDr . Martin Luther Kingin the former 1950s when Belafonte go to hear King , who was still an vague preacher , speak in Harlem . Both men were in their early 20s . The vocalizer move all in , using his fiscal success to help plunk for the pastor and his phratry and the civil rights movement .
" I threw my lot in with [ baron ] entirely , put a luck behind the movement , " Belafontetold The New York Timesin 2017 . " Whatever money I had saved went for bonds and bail and rent , money for guys to get in their railroad car and go wherever . I was Daddy Warbucks . "
In 1956,Belafonte appearedat a fundraising result in New York with Coretta Scott King and Duke Ellington , and during the 1960s offer fiscal assistance to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) as they planned and carry through the Birmingham Campaign , a desegregation movement that ran from April 3 to May 10 , 1963 .
During that time , King was check and write his celebrated " Letter from a Birmingham Jail . " While King was in jail , Belafonte bring up $ 50,000 to help the campaign keep . Belafonte aid organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and theMississippi Freedom Summer .
After King was assassinated in 1968 , Belafonte do as an executor of King ’s land . " Whenever we got into trouble or when tragedy struck , " wrote Coretta Scott King in her memoir , " My Life with Martin Luther King , Jr. , " " Harry has always come to our aid , his generous heart wide undecided . "
Belafonte ’s activism did n’t stop with civil right field in the U.S. He was just as concerned about those suffering under the oppression of apartheid in South Africa or dying from dearth , warfare and disease .
He was instrumental in organizing the star - dot U.S.A. for Africa " We Are the World " recording session for famine easement in Africa in 1985 . He sought the release of political prisoners , including South African loss leader Nelson Mandela . He raised stock for HIV treatment and prevention . He served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps .
He also foundedSankofa , an organization where artist habituate their talents to create awareness and inflate voices for societal variety .
Honoring a Legend
In 1989 , Belafonte received theKennedy Centers Honorsfor excellence in the execute liberal arts and in 1994 , President Bill Clinton award Belafonte the National Medal of Arts for contributions to the ethnical living of the United States .
Belafonte receivednumerous honorary degreesfrom mental institution including Spellman College in Atlanta , Tufts University , Brandeis University and Columbia University . In 2013 , he was awarded theSpingarn Medalby the NAACP , for striking achievement by an African American . He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2014 for outstanding contributions to humanist lawsuit .
Throughout his lifetime — as an creative person and as an militant — Belafonte dedicated himself to promoting judge for the voteless , suppress or underserved . To him there was no mellow calling .
