The Passing of Harry Belafonte
Dear Howard University Community,
Our community celebrates the life and mourns the passing of the legendary entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte. Mr. Belafonte died on Tuesday from congestive heart failure at age 96.
Mr. Belafonte was a pioneer in entertainment, and just as much a powerhouse in the areas of activism and social justice. During his decorated seven-decade career, he achieved the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards), helped organize the recording of "We Are the World" by the supergroup USA for Africa, and earned induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was also an alumnus of our beloved Alma Mater, having earned an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Howard University during our 2001 commencement exercises.
Born in Harlem, New York, on March 1, 1927, to Jamaican immigrants, Mr. Belafonte's childhood was split between the Caribbean and the United States. He would later serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. While working as a janitor's assistant in the 1940s, he was gifted two tickets to the American Negro Theater, where he discovered his love for the arts. Before their successes, he and close friend Sidney Poitier would purchase a single seat to local performances and trade places between acts, a practice Mr. Belafonte called "sharing the burden and the joy."
Toward the end of the decade, and through his G.I. Bill, Mr. Belafonte began attending the Dramatic Workshop of the New School of Social Research; his classmates included Poitier, Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, and Bea Arthur. Singing in jazz clubs to cover his expenses, Mr. Belafonte's first appearance in front of an audience featured Charlie Parker on saxophone and Max Roach on drums. In 1952, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records.
Monikered the "King of Calypso," Mr. Belafonte popularized the genre and Caribbean music more broadly with international audiences in the 1950s. His album "Calypso" became the first LP ever to be certified with sales of 1 million or more. It included his signature record "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)," which spent 99 weeks on the Billboard charts, including 31 weeks at No. 1, the fourth-longest run in the publication's history. He also became a star of the screen, subsequently earning the lead role in the musical "Carmen Jones" alongside Dorothy Dandridge. In the 1960s, he appeared in television specials with Lena Horne and Julie Andrews, among others, and guest-hosted "The Tonight Show" for a week in 1968 in place of Johnny Carson.
Yet Mr. Belafonte's celebrity never diminished his activism; on the contrary, if anything, it only emboldened his deep passion for humanity.
At the height of his fame, Mr. Belafonte became close confidants to Paul Robeson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and spent much of the 1960s actively involved in the civil rights movement. Inspired to ease famine abroad and hunger domestically, he set into motion the recording of "We Are the World," raising over $63 million for humanitarian aid. In 1987, he became only the second American to be named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Upon receiving his honorary doctorate in 2001, Mr. Belafonte marveled at America's progress over his lifetime, but he also sincerely worried that growth was, as he phrased it, "in great jeopardy." "Many gains that we have made are now in the process of being reversed," he cautioned the Howard graduates. "What is most important about this class ... is not how well you fit into the culture of greed that you will be walking into, it is how well you use yourself to sustain the victories that have been given to you and move this nation and all of us along."
Mr. Belafonte's words ring as true today as they did two decades ago. As we continue in our pursuit of a more equitable world, we would do well to heed his wisdom and follow in his footsteps.
Excellence in Truth and Service,
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
President