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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Harry Belafonte: 'I chose to be a civil rights warrior'

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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Harry Belafonte: 'I chose to be a
civil rights warrior'
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'I chose to be a civil rights warrior'
Harry Belafonte enraged rightwingers when he branded Bush 'the world's
greatest terrorist'. But that's nothing new for him - the singer and actor
has devoted most of his life to political activism. Now turned 80, he
talks to Steve Howell

Steve Howell
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Guardian

Harry Belafonte has every reason to sit back and enjoy the warm glow of
his extraordinary career. "Award-winning" is an overworked term, but it
has real meaning when you have picked up a Tony, four Grammys (including a
lifetime achievement award) and the first ever Emmy for an
African-American. Or when you have been a Unicef goodwill ambassador for
20 years and received countless accolades for work in Africa and the civil
rights movement. But although Belafonte has just turned 80, he is not the
type to wind down. He has hardly been out of the news since attacking the
war in Iraq and dubbing President Bush "the world's greatest terrorist".
With more than a hint of irony, he subsequently admitted he didn't know
all the world's terrorists. But that was a little subtle for most of the
pundits on CNN and Fox News.

On home ground at the Hotel Algonquin in New York's theatreland, Belafonte
is unrepentant. "I have very little regard for consensus if it blinds you
to the truth," he says with typical fervour. Tall, trim and in enviably
good shape, Belafonte has lost none of his sparkle and talks
enthusiastically as he eats lunch with the appetite of a teenager.

Born in Harlem of Caribbean parents in 1927, Belafonte spent five years of
his early childhood in Jamaica. His mother had a passion for education and
was prepared to "make any bargain with poverty" to get her son through
school. But Belafonte had dyslexia and dropped out of high school at 17 to
join the navy. "The guilt stayed with me for ever," he recalls. "When I
came out of the navy, I had no skills and became a janitor's assistant.
Then I was given some free theatre tickets as a tip. I didn't even know
what theatre was, but I went along, and it was a revelation."

He studied drama in a New York group that included Marlon Brando, Rod
Steiger and Walter Matthau and was soon taking his first steps to becoming
America's first black superstar. At a time when blacks in the south could
not eat at the same food counters or sit on the same bus seats as whites,
in 1953 he broke through the race barrier to win a Tony award for his role
in the Broadway play Almanac. His singing had originally paid for his
acting classes, but soon the music took over. When Calypso, his third
album featuring his trademark song Banana Boat Song (Day-O), was released
in 1956, it was No 1 for 31 weeks and became the first LP to sell more
than a million copies. He had signed for RCA at the same time as Elvis
Presley, but the Graceland lifestyle wasn't for him. "I could have made
$2bn or $3bn - and ended up with some very cruel addiction - but I chose
to be a civil rights warrior instead."

Belafonte was a pioneer in movies and television, too. In 1957, he
appeared in Island in the Sun, in which there were hints at an affair
between him and Joan Fontaine. A scene in which the two kissed was taken
out, but even the suggestion of interracial sex caused controversy in the
south. Some states talked of banning the film, and the Ku Klux Klan
threatened to bomb any cinema that showed it.

Eleven years later, Petula Clark, who was at the height of her popularity,
invited Belafonte to appear on a primetime television special on NBC and
the two sang a duet during which Clark touched Belafonte's hand. The
show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, said the gesture would upset southern
viewers and wanted it cut. But Clark owned the rights and, after talking
to Belafonte, said the performance must be shown intact or not at all. It
is believed to be the first time two people of different races made
friendly physical contact on US television.

Off screen, Belafonte married his second wife, Julie, in 1957. A dancer
and actress, she has appeared in films with him and been active in the
arts and politics in her own right. In 2001, the two of them set up the
Harry and Julie Belafonte Fund for HIV/Aids.

Since the 50s, Belafonte has used his celebrity status to aid the civil
rights movement, influence the Kennedys, raise millions for Africa and
support the anti-apartheid movement. The turning point was a meeting with
Martin Luther King in 1953. Belafonte was already politically aware, his
anger stirred by the way blacks were treated after they had fought for
democracy in the war against Hitler. Then King, a relatively unknown
preacher at the time, sought his aid. "We talked for four hours - it was a
life-changing moment. From then on, I was in his service and in his world
of planning, strategy and thinking. We became very close immediately."

Belafonte gave generously to the civil rights movement and enlisted the
support of Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, James Garner and other Hollywood
stars. But, despite turning up at rallies with a legendary bag full of
cash, he was far more than a political sugar daddy. The authoritative
history of the movement by Taylor Branch has more than 100 references to
Belafonte's role as a key adviser to King and a bridge to prominent white
politicians, especially the Kennedys.

In 1959, Jack Kennedy arrived on his New York doorstep. The young senator
from Massachusetts was desperate to win the black vote in the presidential
primaries and hoped Belafonte would help. "There was no time for polite
soft talk," Belafonte recalls. "I told him his choice in coming to me was
rather misguided ... 'You should talk to our leaders - if you don't know
Martin Luther King, your knowledge of him will be central to your
interests.' " Kennedy went on to win the Democratic party's nomination and
beat Richard Nixon in the presidential election by a margin of less than
1% - Belafonte's endorsement possibly being the decisive factor.

President Kennedy appointed Belafonte cultural adviser to the new Peace
Corps, which sent thousands of young volunteers to Africa, Asia and Latin
America. But that did not allay concerns in the civil rights leadership
about the president's choice of attorney general: his younger brother,
Bobby. "We saw it as a very dark day," says Belafonte. Though now seen by
history as a champion of civil rights, social justice and peace in
Vietnam, in 1960 Bobby was known as a lawyer who had aided the McCarthy
witchhunts. When the civil rights leaders debated Bobby's appointment,
King told the meeting that they had no choice but to accept they needed
the help of the Kennedy brothers. And he gave Belafonte a very clear
mission: "Find Bobby's moral centre and win him to our cause."

The two men were similar ages and had young children. Over the next eight
years, their families would spend many days together around Kennedy's
swimming pool, going to concerts and playing touch football. "To reach
someone's soul, you have to have a social relationship," says Belafonte.
"You can't just sit down in the cold world of legal jargon and settle the
nuances of racism and what it does to the social and cultural fabric." But
Belafonte says Kennedy's real transformation came when he went to the poor
white areas of Appalachia and into the southern states to see things for
himself. "The rich in America are so isolated that for Bobby to come into
this intimate experience with its victims was a revelation. You could see
in his face the anguish and consternation. It played away at his
conscience and soul."

In the 1968 election, Belafonte was a tenacious activist for Kennedy. And
he still had the superstar status to give the campaign special help. When
Johnny Carson, the host of NBC's flagship Tonight Show, took a week's
break, Belafonte became the first black person to host a US chatshow. King
and Kennedy were among his guests, but just a few months later both would
be assassinated, shot dead at the peak of their powers.

What bothers Belafonte today is the lack of young leaders. So he has been
trying - "on my own dime" - to bring young people into political action.
He was recently galvanised by seeing on television a five-year-old girl
being taken away from a Florida school in handcuffs. "Her only crime was
that she was unruly in class. She did nothing threatening, she stabbed no
one, there was no violence. There was a time you brought in a counsellor
or a social worker, but now you incarcerate them and take their
fingerprints. It so shamed me that I called a meeting of the old civil
rights leaders and many younger activists to discuss the plight of
children and the justice system."

The meeting was held in Atlanta - to be near King's vision - and was so
successful it was followed by conferences of young people in Alabama,
California, upstate New York and Tennessee. "They have chosen to call
themselves the Gathering. It hasn't found its Dr King yet, but it's
building a life of its own."

These days Belafonte sees himself as working "outside the box" of
conventional politics. He's not impressed with the presidential choices
offered by the Democratic party, but he does see Barack Obama as someone
who could play a positive role. "There's a place for him, but he's the
final determinant as to whether he achieves that or not. He needs to
capture the imagination of a universe hungry for decent thought and
passion. All he has to do is be truthful and have a vision for what to do
and stop playing a goddamn game of politics. If he does that, he'll get
everything he needs."

Obama recalls in his autobiography: "More than once my mother would point
out: 'Harry Belafonte is the best-looking man on the planet.'" But clearly
he will need more than flattery to win over a man hardened to the
superficiality of American politics.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

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please stop these ridiculously long stories can't you just summarise them, it takes waaay to long to read them....maybe thats why not many people reply to them...except me of course niceone.gif

Ok....