Singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who broke down racial barriers in the United States in the 1950s, died on Tuesday at the age of 96 at his home in New York, his representative Ken Sunshine reported to the media there.
Born in the neighborhood The New Yorker from Harlem in 1927. with Jamaican descent, Belafonte rose to fame in 1956 with the Caribbean hit album “Calypso,” which popularized songs like “Day-O” and “Jamaica Farewell.”
He also had some forays into the world of cinematography, with movies like “Carmen Jones”at a time when racial segregation was still deeply rooted in the United States, and African-Americans had minority roles on the big screen.
Due to its great popularity and ability to break racial barriers In the art world, Belafonte’s career has been compared to that of artists such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald or his contemporary Sidney Poitier.
In 1968, a British singer petula clarkwho was at the height of his popularity at the time, invited Belafonte to a special program on NBC television and the two sang a duet during which Clark gently touched his colleague’s hand.
The sponsor of that show, the company Plymouth Motorstried to censor the moment because it might offend audiences in the southern United States, but Clark, who held the rights to the program, refused to do so.
It is believed to be the first time two people of different skin colors have made discreet physical contact in front of the cameras.
Belafonte, who personally engaged and financed the human rights movementhe was a personal friend of Reverend Martin Luther King and participated in the historic March on Washington in 1963, the one with the famous “I have a dream” speech.
He also received support for the cause famous Hollywood stars such as Paul Newman and Marlon Brando, and the President of the United States John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) appointed him cultural adviser to the newly founded Peace Corps.
He was always involved in one way or another policy and came to qualify US President George W. Bush (2001-2009) as “the greatest of terrorists” for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Source: Panama America
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