Trailblazing performer and fierce activist
DIED
HARRY BELAFONTE, THE singer, actor, and activist who broke barriers in his tireless fight for civil rights, died at 96 on April 25. With knockout good looks and a warm, acrobatic voice, he become known as “America’s Negro matinee idol” in the 1950s, one of the few crossover Black stars in a segregated nation. His songs, including “Day-O (Banana Boat Song)” and “Jump in the Line,” brought calypso music to American audiences and became enduring hits, while his powerful screen presence propelled films like Carmen Jones and Island in the Sun. He captivated audiences with his ability to inject both deep pathos and impish humor into a repertoire spanning jazz, folk, and even chain-gang chants.
Belafonte’s charisma made him a hit in front of diverse crowds. His 1956 album of Caribbean songs, initially deemed too “ethnic,” made history as the first album to sell a million copies in the U.S. Despite his success, he was met with discrimination and resistance. In Hollywood, he was offered staid roles like the curmudgeonly teacher or kindly handyman. A Chicago club’s manager refused to let him into his own show, and he weathered death threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
At the height of his fame, Belafonte stepped back from entertainment to devote his time to the civil rights movement. He became a key economic engine and behind-the-scenes organizer for sit-ins, freedom rides, and marches. He raised and personally delivered $70,000 to protesters in Mississippi during their 1964 Freedom Summer; he became one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most trusted confidants, serving as a mediator between King and John F. Kennedy’s White House. He stood at the front lines at the March on Washington and the final march from Selma to Montgomery, embodying the ethos he later described in his memoir: “To change the culture, you had to change the country.”
In the decades to come he would expand his empathetic push to a global scale, fighting against apartheid in South Africa, famine in Ethiopia, and genocide in Rwanda. He became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, and spearheaded the 1985 “We Are the World” effort that r
