![]() King's daughter Bernice on Tuesday posted a photo of a crying Belafonte seated with her mother Coretta at the slain activist's funeral. "Belafonte's global popularity and his commitment to our cause is a key ingredient to the global struggle for freedom and a powerful tactical weapon in the civil rights movement here in America," King once said. When King was thrown into a Birmingham jail, Belafonte raised $50,000 - nearly $500,000 in current value - to post his bail. He opened his own coffers to back the civil rights movement, becoming close with Martin Luther King Jr.īelafonte brought the civil rights leader along with the Birmingham, Alabama pastor Fred Shuttlesworth to his New York apartment to plan out the 1963 campaign to integrate the notoriously racist southern city. "When people think of activism, they always think some sacrifice is involved, but I've always considered it a privilege and an opportunity," he said in a 2004 speech at Emory University. He also won three Grammys and a humanitarian award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.īut his life's work went far beyond performance, with both his music and acting taking a supporting role to his activism. Six years later, he became the first African American to win an Emmy Award for "Tonight with Belafonte," his musical television program. In 1954, he became the first African American man to win a Tony Award, for his role in the Broadway musical "John Murray Anderson's Almanac." He starred in the 1957 film "Island in the Sun" as an upwardly mobile Black politician on a fictional island who becomes involved with a woman from the white elite, in one of Hollywood's earliest depictions of interracial romance. "Harry Belafonte was not only a great entertainer, but he was a courageous leader in the fight against racism and worker oppression," progressive senator Bernie Sanders wrote.Įven early in his career, Belafonte did not shy away from controversy. Legend was one of many, from all walks of American life, to send tributes singers, politicians and activists hailed Belafonte's talent, advocacy and trailblazing contributions. ![]() "When people just thought he was singing about good times and the islands, he was always infusing messages of protest and revolution in everything he did."
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