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April 26, 2023

Harry Belafonte, Pioneering Singer and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at Age 96
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Harry Belafonte, pioneering activist, singer and actor, has died at the
age of 96. Harry Belafonte was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant
parents. He is credited with popularizing Caribbean music in the U.S.
with his chart-topping 1956 album "Calypso," which included the hits
"Jump in the Line," "Jamaica Farewell" and "Day-O." His musical success
led to multiple acting offers, and he went on to star in dozens of films
and TV shows.

But his driving force was activism, and he leveraged his successful
entertainment career to shine a spotlight on civil rights and to fund
movements like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He
participated in the 1963 March on Washington. Belafonte famously said,
"I was an activist who became an artist, I was not an artist who became
an activist." After headlines, we'll air clips of the legendary Harry
Belafonte for the rest of the hour.


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