Interview with Harry Belafonte conducted for Eyes on the Prize II. Discussion covers various topics including his activism, along with interactions with figures in the Civil Rights Movement, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Other topics include the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana and Black Power. This interview also appeared in Malcolm X: Make It Plain.
Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the original 16mm negative film were scanned and digitized to create 2K DPX files and the original 1/4" elements were digitized to create 24-bit 96kHz .wav files. The picture and audio were then reassembled at the Film & Media Archive.
Publisher
Washington University in St. Louis
Blackside, Inc.
Language
English
Identifier
MAVIS Interview record: 417
bel4195.00417
Series
Eyes on the Prize II
Note
Harry Belafonte introduced calypso music to a worldwide audience, and helped popularize socially conscious folk music. He achieved further success as an actor and producer and rose to prominence as a civil rights activist. Born in Harlem to emigrants from the Caribbean, he spent much of his childhood in Jamaica. He has won Grammys, a Tony, an Emmy and been awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars. A close friend, advisor and financial supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped organize and fund the March on Washington in 1963, as well as speaking. In the 1980s, he helped plan and sang on "We Are The World," to raise funds for Africa, and was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. He was a co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, the day after Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
