Harry Belafonte Dies at Age 96
Art has always found ways to inscribe itself into records of our history, and this fact is no different for the legacy of Harry Belafonte: folk singer, actor, film producer, and humanitarian.
Belafonte served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and an adamant supporter of the civil rights movement in the mid 1900s. Famously dubbed the “King of Calypso” by fans and observers alike, his work was a hallmark of 1950s folk music, with origins tracing back to ethnic Caribbean music. Born from immigrant parents and growing up in New York and Jamaica, Belafonte and his mother struggled to recuperate from an absent father figure, make ends meet financially, and find emotional stability throughout arduous times; Belafonte eventually resolved to drop out of high school to join the U.S. Navy.
Inspired by stage performances in New York’s American Negro Theater, Belafonte took up acting classes and worked club gigs in the city. His celebrity status took off with the release of his second and third albums, which featured his signature Jamaican style, capturing its essence to share with a new audience—many of whom had not encountered such a genre before. His most renowned personal works include “The Banana Boat Song”, “Jump in the Line”, and “Island in the Sun”, but he also organized and participated in the production of We Are the World—a project that utilized music to fund famine relief in Ethiopia.
“It’s a song about my father, my mother, my uncles, the men and women who toil in the banana fields, the cane fields of Jamaica,” he explained, in reference to “The Banana Boat Song.” By the end of his career in the spotlight, Belafonte had performed on Broadway, on television, in films, and in musicals, and won multiple Grammy awards for his music, particularly in the folk category.
Aside from his fame in the music industry, Belafonte was also a pioneer for civil rights alongside his close friend Martin Luther King Jr. He cites his early years living in Jamaica when asked what founded his commitment to the movement—an experience that forced him to encounter firsthand English oppression of people of African descent. His contributions encompassed organizing the 1983 March on Washington, funding for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and participating in various civil protests and rallies. He also provided support for rising African artists such as Miriam Makeba, who became inspired by him to fight against apartheid in her own country of South Africa.
His recent death on April 25 at age 96 left many numb—but many more in commemoration of his life’s accomplishments.
“It was beautiful,” celebrates Kerry Kennedy, a fellow leader of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Organization. “The constant talking, challenging, soul searching, defensiveness, and then revelation, a beautiful flow of conversation and insight… He was relentless and fabulous and always argued from a place of love.”
Though his passing has certainly caused grief, his legacy will continue to be prominent and long lasting in our everyday world. Belafonte’s music, compassion, and firmness in his belief have had a profound influence throughout the country and continue to inspire activism and advocacy to this day.
by CHLOE WANG