American singer Harry Belafonte has died of congestive coronary heart failure on the age of 96, his spokesman has confirmed.
The civil rights icon was pronounced deceased at his house within the Higher West Aspect of Manhattan along with his spouse Pamela by his aspect on Tuesday.
Belafonte made a splash in Hollywood within the Fifties, changing into a star along with his hit songs Day-O (The Banana Boat Track) and Leap within the Line.
That success finally led to main roles in movies like Carmen Jones and Island within the Solar.
However as he grew to become increasingly of a family title, Belafonte began to talk out in opposition to the racism he skilled in Hollywood as he described himself as a singer of music with ‘roots within the black tradition of American Negroes, Africa and the West Indies.’
American people singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, pictured in 1956, has died of congestive coronary heart failure
Belafonte befriended civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr early in his profession. They’re pictured collectively at New York’s Kennedy Worldwide Airport in August 1964
Following the information of his demise, Sen. Bernie Sanders hailed Belafonte as ‘not solely an excellent entertainer’ but in addition a ‘brave chief within the combat in opposition to racism and employee oppression.’
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump additionally tweeted: ‘By means of his extraordinary contributions, together with his notable advocacy for human rights and social justice, he leaves an indelible mark on this world.’
And Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote: ‘After I was a baby, #HarryBelafonte confirmed up for my household in very compassionate methods.
‘In truth, he paid for the babysitter for me and my siblings,’ she stated, sharing a photograph of him comforting Coretta at her father’s funeral service.
‘I gained’t overlook,’ King wrote. ‘Relaxation nicely, sir.’
Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. (whose father later modified the household’s title) was born in Harlem to West Indian immigrants in March 1927.
He grew up with members of the family who have been typically unemployed or ‘above the regulation,’ he later recalled, and in 1944, Belafonte dropped out of highschool to hitch the Navy, the place his black shipmates launched him to the works of WEB Du Bois and different African American authors.
Whereas stationed in Virginia, Belafonte met Marguerite Byrd, the daughter of a middle-class Washington household who was finding out psychology on the Hampton Institute, and so they married in 1948, happening to have two youngsters collectively.
Following his discharge, Belafonte grew to become involved in performing and enrolled below the GI Invoice at Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop, the place his classmates included Marlon Brando and Tony Curtis.
He first took the stage on the American Negro Theater, the place he labored as a stagehand and have become lifelong mates with fellow actor Sidney Poitier.
However he had bother discovering roles as a black man, and as a substitute sought fame with music, growing his personal takes on standard people songs.
Belafonte’s album, Calypso, was stated to be the primary by a single artist to promote greater than 1 million copies after it reached the tip of Billboard album charts in 1956 and stayed there for greater than 30 weeks straight.
And by 1959, he was probably the most extremely paid black performer in American historical past, with contracts for appearances in Las Vegas, on the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and on the Palace at New York.
Talking of his hit track, The Banana Boat Track, in a 2011 interview with NPR, Belafonte advised how the track is about rebel.
‘After I sing the Banana Boat Track, the track is a piece track,’ he stated. ‘It’s about males who sweat all day lengthy, and they’re underpaid, and so they’re begging the tallyman to come back and provides them an sincere depend — counting the bananas that I’ve picked, so I may be paid. And typically, once they couldn’t get cash, they’ll give them a drink of rum.
‘There’s a lyric within the track that claims, “Work all night time on a drink of rum” Individuals sing and delight and dance and adore it, however they don’t actually perceive until they examine the track that they’re singing a piece track that’s a track of rebel.’
By 1959, Belafonte was probably the most extremely paid black performer in American historical past
His 1957 movie Island within the Solar, which hinted at a romance between his character and a white lady performed by Joan Fontaine generated outrage within the South
Belafonte, fifth from left, even took half within the historic March on Washington in 1963
Belafonte is pictured in 1960 at a protest in opposition to segregation by Woolworth’s malls
Belafonte continued to carry out nicely into the twenty first century, showing in movies like BlacKkKlansman in 2018 and portraying South African bishop Desmond Tutu in Breathe in 2005.
However beginning within the late Fifties, Belafonte took on a bigger function as a serious activist within the civil rights motion.
He had befriended Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. early in his profession and put up a lot of the seed cash to start out the Scholar Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Belafonte was then one of many important fundraisers for the group, in addition to for King’s Southern Christian Management Convention.
He additionally offered cash to bail out Dr. King and different civil rights leaders, and would typically host the reverend at his spacious New York Metropolis condo.
Belafonte even stood with King on the historic March on Washington in 1963, in addition to the Alabama march from Selma and Montgomery, and made certain King’s household was nicely taken care of after he was assassinated in 1968.
Belafonte described his music as having ‘roots within the black tradition of American Negroes, Africa and the West Indies’
Harry Belafonte is pictured along with his spouse Julie, daughters Adrienne, son David and daughter Gina
Belafonte’s album, Calypso, was stated to be the primary by a single artist to promote greater than 1 million copies after it reached the tip of Billboard album charts in 1956
Harry Belafonte receives the Nationwide Order of the Legion of Honour, the best award bestowed by the French authorities in 2021. He’s pictured along with his spouse Pamela
The singer additionally spoke out in regards to the racism he skilled in Hollywood.
His 1957 movie Island within the Solar, which hinted at a romance between his character and a white lady performed by Joan Fontaine generated outrage within the South, a lot so {that a} invoice was even launched within the South Carolina Legislature that may have fined any theater displaying the movie.
Whereas in Atlanta for a profit live performance for the Southern Christian Management Convention in 1962, he was twice refused service on the identical restaurant, and tv appearances with white feminine singers like Petula Clark in 1968 and Julie Andrews in 1969 angered viewers.
However he additionally confronted some criticism from the black group, a few of whom urged early on in his profession that he was solely profitable because of the lightness of his pores and skin (as his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother have been each white).
And when he divorced his spouse in 1957 and married Julie Robinson, the one white member of Katherine Dunham’s dance troupe, the Amsterdam Information wrote: ‘Many Negroes are questioning why a person who has waved the flag of justice for his race ought to flip from a Negro spouse to a white spouse.’
Harry Belafonte with white singer Petula Clark throughout their controversial efficiency of On the Path of Glory, which confirmed inadvertent interracial touching
A crowd of over 10,000 civil rights marchers gathers within the Manhattan Garment Heart as Harry Belafonte sings at religious at a civil rights rally in an undated photograph
Belafonte befriended fellow actor Sidney Poitier early in his profession. They’re pictured collectively in 2013
One among Belafonte’s first roles was in Carmen Jones, reverse actress Dorothy Dandridge
Belafonte and Poitier are pictured collectively within the movie Buck and the Preacher in 1972
By the Sixties, as his pal Poitier grew to become increasingly of a star, Belafonte’s movie profession dried up.
He stated Hollywood was not within the socially-conscious movies he wished to make, and was not within the roles studios supplied.
As a substitute, he grew to become a well-recognized however controversial presence on tv.
His particular Tonight With Belafonte gained an Emmy in 1960, the primary for a black performer, however a deal to do 5 extra specials for the present’s sponsor, Revlon, fell aside after only one extra was broadcast, when, he stated, Revlon requested him to not characteristic black and white performers collectively.
A taping of a 1968 particular with Petula Clark was additionally interrupted when she touched his arm, and a consultant of the present’s sponsor, Chrysler-Plymouth, demanded a retake.
When he lastly returned to performing, as each a producer and co-star of The Angel Levine, he had his Harry Belafonte Enterprises rent 15 black and Hispanic apprentices to study filmmaking by working with the crew.
One among them, Drake Walker, wrote the story for Belafonte’s subsequent movie, the western Buck and the Preacher, additionally starring Poitier.
Belafonte went on to obtain a Kennedy Heart Honor in 1989, a Nationwide Medal of Arts in 1994 and a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2000.
In 2014, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences additionally gave him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in recognition of his lifelong combat for civil rights and different causes.
And simply final 12 months, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame.
Belafonte was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in 1987
Former South African President Nelson Mandela is pictured with Belafonte in 2002
Belafonte is pictured along with his ex-wife Julie Robinson within the early Nineties
However Belafonte continued to stay political up till the top.
Within the Eighties, he helped set up a cultural boycott of South Africa for its apartheid coverage, in addition to the Dwell Help live performance and the all-star recording of We Are the World, to combat famine in Africa.
One 12 months later, he additionally created the 1986 human-chain marketing campaign Arms Throughout America, to profit the poor in the USA.
His humanitarian work finally noticed him advocate for the discharge of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela in South Africa and was appointed as a cultural advisor to the Peace Corps by President John F. Kennedy.
Belafonte additionally briefly thought of working for the US Senate in 1986, and the next 12 months, he changed Danny Kaye as UNICEF’s Goodwill ambassador.
In later years, Belafonte grew to become an outspoken critic in the course of the George W. Bush administration, accusing then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell of abandoning his rules and calling Bush ‘the best terrorist on the planet.’
He was additionally outspoken in the course of the 2015 New York mayoral election, when he brazenly campaigned for Invoice de Blasio.
On the marketing campaign path, he referred to conservative donors the Koch brothers as ‘white supremacists,’ and in contrast them to the KKK — forcing de Blasio to distance himself from the feedback.
And on election day in 2016, The New York Instances revealed an opinion piece he wrote urging folks to not vote for Trump, whom he known as ‘feckless and immature.’
He repeated these remarks 4 years later, as he claimed Trump can be problematic for the black group.
Belafonte is now survived by his spouse, Pamela, his youngsters, Adrienne Biesner; Shari Belafonte; Gina Belafonte; and David Belafonte, stepdaughter Sarah Frank and stepson Linsey Frank, in addition to eight grandchildren.
