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Vegas, Birmingham, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
A participant’s portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, from Harry Belafonte’s memoir of activism and entertainment, My Song.
Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 was one of the most segregated cities in America. It had segregated lunch counters, restrooms, and water fountains. It had a nickname, “Bombingham,” for the homemade bombs detonated by local Klansmen. And it had Eugene “Bull” Connor, a racist police chief with a hair-trigger temper. It was here that Dr. King and his advisers, Harry Belafonte among them, rolled the dice on an enormous action which would rejuvenate the civil rights movement.
Harry Belafonte is one of America’s greatest entertainers and also one of our most profoundly influential activists. During the 1960s he befriended…
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January 13, 2015Harry Belafonte’s 1956 album Calypso made him the first artist in history to sell more than one million LPs. He won both a Tony Award and an Emmy, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. He served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and is the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts. He died in 2023.