Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer, dies aged 96
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Harry Belafonte has died aged 96. The cause of death for the activist, singer, and actor was congestive heart failure.
Winning a Tony award for acting and having an extensive filmography would be sufficient for anyone. But Belafonte went further than that, bankrolling numerous civil rights causes and lending his heft and activism to causes in the Global South.
At the time of Belafonte’s nascent show business career, segregation was still widespread. Harry Belafonte’s rise to the peak of the business was historic. While he was not the first Black performer to reach mainstream acceptance, for a period of time he was arguably one of the biggest stars in the world, Black or White.
Activism
Belafonte’s activism began in the 1950s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when he became a close friend and supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. He helped to fundraise and organize civil rights marches and events, and used his platform as a popular performer to bring attention to issues such as segregation, voter suppression, and police brutality.
When his comrades were arrested, including Dr King, Belafonte put up the bond to get civil rights activists out of jail. His apartment became the home away form home for Dr King. He also secretly maintained an insurance policy on Dr. King’s life, naming the King family as beneficiaries. After Dr King was assassinated in 1968, he donated his own money to make sure that those who survived him would not be without comfort, succour, and safety.
Belafonte was also heavily involved in the anti-apartheid movement, using his influence to raise awareness about the plight of black South Africans under apartheid and advocating for economic sanctions against the apartheid regime. He was a vocal critic of the Reagan administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” with South Africa, arguing that it only prolonged the suffering of black South Africans.
In addition to his civil rights and anti-apartheid work, Belafonte has been a longtime advocate for humanitarian causes such as world hunger and HIV/AIDS. He has served as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and founded the organization USA for Africa, which raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia in the 1980s.
Belafonte campaigned against poverty, apartheid and Aids in Africa; and supported socialist political leaders like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.
Even until the end, Harry Belafonte was vocal about the causes that served humanity. He became increasingly outspoken during the George W. Bush administration. He accused Secretary of State Colin Powell of selling out his principles to “come into the house of the master.” Four years later he called Mr. Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.” He was also very vocal against Donald Trump, who he called “feckless” and “immature”.
Early life and breakthrough
Harry Belafonte was born in 1927 in Harlem, New York, and spent eight years of his childhood in parent’s country of birth, Jamaica. He returned to New York for high school but struggled due to his dyslexia. he dropped out of school in his early teens, taking jobs in markets and in the city’s garment district. Belafonte signed up to the US navy aged 17 in March 1944, working as a munitions loader at a base in New Jersey.
At the end of WW2, he worked as a janitor’s assistant but was drawn to a career in show business after being inspired by watching plays at New York’s American Negro Theater. Under the provisions of the G.I. Bill, Belafonte enrolled at Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop. He was a contemporary of Sidney Poitier, while his classmates in acting school included Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, and Walter Matthau.
Belafonte paid for these acting classes by singing on New York’s club scene. He rapidly grew a following as a musician, and released his debut album in 1954. His second album, the eponymous “Belafonte”, reached number one on the US Billboard album chart in March 1956. His third album, “Calypso” was an even bigger commercial success, drawing from songs of Jamaican heritage. This was the first album to ever sell more than a million copies in the United States and it stayed at the top of the Billboard Charts for 31 weeks.
