NEW YORK CITY, NY — Icon, actor, producer, EGOT winner and activist, Harry Belafonte died on Tuesday morning of congestive heart failure at the age of 96, in his New York home with his wife Pamela by his side.
Belafonte was globally know for both for his artistic ingenuity and humanitarian ideals, and entrenched in the Civil Rights Movement, a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others, and financial backer of countless historic political and social causes and events. Many of those events included the anti-Apartheid Movement of South Africa, equal rights for women, juvenile justice, climate change and the decolonization of continent of Africa. Belafonte met a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his historic visit to New York in the early 1950’s. From that day until Dr. King’s assassination, Belafonte and King developed a deep and abiding friendship.
He was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and led a delegation of Hollywood luminaries including his best friend Sidney Poitier, as well as Paul Newman, Sammy Davis, Jr, Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Tony Curtis, James Baldwin, Burt Lancaster, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carrol, Bob Dylan, Mahalia Jackson, Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis to name a few.
Belafonte was born in Harlem in 1927. Overwhelmed and intimidated by the tough streets and thinking the islands to be a safer place, his immigrant mother sent him back to the island of her birth, Jamaica. Once he returned to the United States years later as a young man, he enlisted in the United States Navy and being honorably discharged years after, Belafonte returned to New York City working odd jobs that included working at a garment center and a janitor’s assistant. After fixing some repairs in an apartment, Belafonte was given, as his gratuity, a ticket to a production of HOME IS THE HUNTER at a community theater in Harlem – the American Negro Theatre (A.N.T.). The world that the theater opened up to him put Belafonte, for the first time, face to face with what would be his destiny – a life in the performing arts. At the dawning of his film career, “Carmen Jones’, co-starring Dorothy Dandridge earned top critical acclaim.
He would go on to star and/or appear in many more films that include, The World, The Flesh, and The Devil, Uptown Saturday Night (with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier), White Man’s Burden, Bobby and Black Klansman to name a few. He also produced films such as Beat Street and Buck And The Preacher.
His musically talents were also displayed as he awarded the first platinum record in history for selling over 1 million LP’s for his RCA album “Calypso.” He was also instrumental in bringing the music of Africa to the rest of the world including artists such as Hugh Maskela and Miriam Makeba with whom he won a GRAMMY Award for their 1965 joint album, “An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba.” Disturbed by war, drought, and famine on the continent of Africa, Belafonte, along with manager Ken Kragen guided and directed the USA for Africa Project which spawned the all-star single, “We Are the World” recorded in 1985 led by Grammy award winning producer Quincy Jones.
Belafonte has been honored many times by such diverse groups as the American Jewish Congress, the NAACP, the City of Hope, Fight for Sight, The Urban League, The National Conference of Black Mayors, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the ACLU, the State Department, the Boy Scouts of America, Hadassah International and the Peace Corps. He has received awards such as The Albert Einstein Award from Yeshiva University, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize, the Acorn Award from the Bronx Community College for his work with children, and, in 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts. He was the first recipient of the Nelson Mandela Courage Award and was honored at the White House with the 1994 National Medal of Arts from President Clinton for his contributions to our nation’s cultural life. He has received honorary degrees from City University of New York, Spellman College in Atlanta, Tufts University, Brandeis University, Long Island University, Bard College, Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia University and many others.
In the last two decades, he founded the Gathering For Justice in 2005 to end child incarceration and eliminate racial inequities in the justice system, and co-founded Sankofa.org with his daughter Gina Belafonte and Raoul Roach in 2015, to educate, motivate, and activate artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change.
His final honor was being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022 when he received the Early Influence Award.
He impacted the lives of many especially from communities right in the United States. Belafonte will be missed but never forgotten through the tireless work to impact lives across the globes and his continued fight for justice and equality.
Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte, David Belafonte and two stepchildren Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank, he leaves behind eight grandchildren: Rachel Blue Biesemeyer, Brian Biesemeyer, Maria Belafonte McCray, Sarafina Belafonte, Amadeus Belafonte, Mateo Frank, Olive Scanga, and Zoe Frank.
