Which Musical Artist Was a Principal Financier of the Civil Rights Movement?
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Scholar-Griot: Samantha Humes, Attorney at Law
Did you ever wonder how the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were able to organize huge demonstrations and travel around the country to speak to groups large and small? They were not well-to-do men and women, nor were the vast majority of those who traveled hundreds of miles from their small towns to Washington D.C. to march, or sat down at lunch counters, or braved the firehoses, or attended and conducted nonviolent civil disobedience trainings.
Their principal financier over decades of civil rights activism was a Black singer, actor, and Hollywood leading man (at a time when this was rare). He was known for introducing and popularizing calypso, a style of music with Caribbean and West African roots, including with mainstream White audiences. But I believe that Harry Belafonte should be even more celebrated for his tireless activism and financial support of the Civil Rights Movement.
Portrait created from a black-and-white photo taken in January 1970, now in the public domain.
Born in Harlem, New York in 1927 to Jamaican-born immigrant parents, Belafonte spent his formative years living in poverty in both Jamacia and New York City. He became legendary during his lifetime for his body of work in film, TV, musical variety shows, and most especially his recorded music. He performed all over the world.
His accomplishments include 3 Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award. Belafonte was nominated four additional times for Emmy Awards. Between 1954 and 1988, he released twenty-seven studio albums. Seven of those albums reached the Top 10 of the U.S. music charts with four albums going Gold. Two live albums in 1959 and 1960 in the Top Ten also earned Gold status.
You may recognize his songs Day-O (“The Banana Boat Song”) and Jump the Line (“Shake Senora”) used in the original 1988 Beetlejuice movie and Day-O in the recent 2024 sequel. In 1968, he guest-hosted The Tonight Show in place of Johnny Carson and interviewed notable guests Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2014, he earned the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Here is a 1960 video of Harry Belafonte performing in Japan and signing Day-O.
Harry Belafonte Television and Video Archives, Youtube. “Harry Belafonte in Concert,” recorded live at Sankei Hall, Tokyo Japan. July 18, 1960
I began my own exploration of Harry Belafonte’s legacy by reading his memoir titled My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race and Defiance. Sing Your Song is also an excellent 2011 documentary about him, as is a 2024 documentary titled Following Harry. Belafonte passed away in April 2023 at the age of ninety-six.
Cover of Harry Belafonte’s memoir published in 2011.
Belafonte was truly larger than life. The stories and circumstances of his life could fill an entire college course. However, undoubtedly it was who he was beyond his famous Hollywood persona that made him extraordinary.
To best paint a picture of this exceptional gentleman, I am going to share three significant stories about Belafonte’s life. They illustrate his great capacity for perseverance, generosity, courage, and integrity. I hope they leave you with a desire to learn more about him and a profound appreciation for the remarkable human being that was Harry Belafonte.
Story #1: In 1952 Belafonte secured his first Las Vegas contract: to perform at the highly regarded Thunderbird resort on the Vegas strip. Upon arriving at the Thunderbird, security was called and Belafonte was informed that (unlike his white band mates) he could not use the front entrance to the hotel, he was not permitted on hotel property except for when he was performing, and that he’d have to use a back door when he was on site for performances. Additionally, Belafonte would need to stay at a “colored hotel” in the Black section of the city.
Las Vegas was a Jim Crow town. However, Belafonte complained about his treatment. Due to his powerful connections, he got the Thunderbird to make an exception for Black entertainers. Still feeling the trauma of how appallingly he had been treated, days later Belafonte decided to swim in the Thunderbird pool, an extremely dangerous act in Vegas in 1952. Imagine the initial shock of the Thunderbird staff, management, and fellow guests! So what was the immediate response to his act of rebellion? A young boy approached Belafonte at the pool and asked for his autograph. And more kids followed with their parents asking for autographs and pictures.
Belafonte wrote in his memoir My Song: “The fans around me were responding to my new fame as a Vegas entertainer, not to the fact that I’d just become the first black ever to swim in the Thunderbird’s pool. That they’d already decided my swim was insignificant – that was its significance. And that no one from the front desk came out to stop me, or mentioned it for the rest of my stay – that was my private act of revenge against their bullheaded prejudice. Not just to break their Jim Crow rules, but to take it a step further, to make them change as well.”
Poster for a concert to aid sit-in movements and the Martin Luther King Defense 1960. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Story #2: Harry Belafonte was prominent as a public activist in the Civil Rights Movement. He enjoyed close relationships with key figures of the Movement and had a close personal friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. While he was seen marching in the protests, few people knew what an active role Belafonte played in the strategizing, planning, and financing central to the Movement’s ongoing struggles and successes.
Much of 1964’s ambitious Freedom Summer succeeded thanks to Belafonte’s financial support. Civil rights activists making up the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) descended upon Mississippi that summer to register Black voters, address Jim Crow barriers to voter registration, and set up Freedom Schools for Black communities. The SNCC was a well-organized civil rights organization of the 1960s that used non-violent techniques to protest racist practices. Belafonte not only provided direct financial support, he tapped into the resources of his celebrity friends like Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando and many more top White and Black male and female performers of his time.
One particularly harrowing story Belafonte shares in his memoir My Song shows just how crucial and dedicated he was to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. He describes getting a phone call late on the evening of August 4, 1964. Activists in Mississippi needed help urgently, following a gruesome discovery earlier that day.
As Belafonte writes in My Song: “The bodies of three volunteers, missing since June 21, had been found in a shallow grave near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman – two of them white, one black – had been arrested on an alleged traffic violation, briefly jailed, then allowed to drive off, after dark, into a KKK ambush. All three had been beaten, then shot. Chaney, the black volunteer, had been tortured and mutilated.” The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) is an American-Protestant White supremacist group dating back to the Reconstruction Era.
The activists had been through a harrowing summer already and needed a large influx of cash to finish out the goals of Freedom Summer – at least $50,000 (approximately $500,000 in today’s money). The money was desperately needed to help house and finance the ongoing projects of more than 1,000 volunteer activists. They needed it safely delivered to Greenwood, Mississippi, right away. Belafonte was in New York City when he received the call for help. The funds had to be delivered in person and in cash, since Mississippi banks couldn’t be trusted. Belafonte quickly raised $70,000 and would deliver the cash himself. Another famous Black actor, Sidney Poitier, would go with him.
Belafonte and Poitier traveled by plane from Newark, New Jersey to Jackson, Mississippi. Volunteers from SNCC drove them to a small private air strip to fly to Greenwood, Mississippi. Two SNCC volunteers met their plane in Greenwood. They immediately encountered several pickup trucks driven by KKK members. One truck with a makeshift battering ram but no license plate started ramming the vehicle they fled in. Their SNCC driver, Willie Blue, used his walkie talkie to request help from volunteers in Greenwood.
Belafonte describes the scene is his memoir: “The pickup truck kept ramming our car, but Willie stayed doggedly to the center of the road, edging left every time the truck tried to pull up. Finally, after two or three terrifying minutes that seemed like forever, I looked down the road to see a convoy of cars coming toward us from Greenwood. ‘That’s them,’ Willie said. The SNCC brigade to the rescue. My heart was still pounding, but I started to breathe again.” The KKK vehicles backed off, but Belafonte describes hearing many shots go off, not knowing if the bullets were fired at them or just in the air. The terrifying trip was a success: Belafonte, Poitier, and SNCC volunteers risked their lives for the cause, and SNCC got much needed funds.
My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance - Harry Belafonte with Martin Luther King Jr.
Belafonte, Coretta Scott King, and Duke Ellington, 1956. Photo credit - Marshall Wilson. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nipsy Russell, Tony Bennett, and Harry Belafonte Speaking with the Press, Selma to Montgomery March. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Monica Karales and the Estate of James Karales, Copyright Estate of James Karales.
Story #3: Harry Belafonte’s dedication to civil rights was lifelong and extended beyond the United States. He was also a devoted political activist and humanitarian for causes in Africa. He highlighted how systems of racism everywhere impact quality of life, access to health care and education, and food security.
Photo credit - UNICEF, “Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte waves to onlookers, standing amidst a crowd of children at the Kihumbuini primary school in Kangemi, a neighborhood of Nairobi. February 2004."
He was active in the movement to end apartheid in South Africa and a great supporter of Nelson Mandela. He was steadfast in preventing HIV/AIDS in Africa through support and education. He also used his status as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF to further these causes he cared about so deeply.
In 1985, the song We Are the World recorded by USA for Africa became a cultural phenomenon. The song brought global attention and financial aid to the devastating famine in Ethiopia. A founding board member of USA for Africa, Belafonte was key in bringing together the forty-five artists that recorded We Are the World. They included such famous artists as Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder, and many others.
Here is a video of the studio recording of We Are the World for USA for Africa.
"We Are the World" studio recording, U.S.A. for Africa VEVO - YouTube.
Here is a heartwarming tribute to Harry Belafonte during the studio recording of We Are the World with the artists signing his hit song Day-O.
Making of "We Are The World" / Tribute Harry Belafonte - YouTube.
We Are the World earned four Grammy awards in 1986, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Its original recording sold more than seven million records worldwide and has generated in excess of $60 million towards relief in Africa since 1985. USA for Africa continues their humanitarian efforts. Belafonte had always believed he could help effectuate positive societal change as a musician and an actor. This concept of Art As Action was then and remains today a cornerstone of USA for Africa’s mission.
It is difficult to share only three stories about Belafonte’s life. There are countless other equally deserving and fascinating stories in his legacy. Most will remember him first as a remarkable entertainer – but many others tell us Harry Belafonte was so much more.
Samantha Humes is a graduate of Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has specialized in criminal defense for 20+ years, mostly representing the indigent. She most recently has expanded into immigration and Afghan asylum work. She calls Wisconsin home.