American civil rights activist Harry Belafonte dies at 96

American folk singer Harry Belafonte has died of a congestive heart failure at the age of 96, his spokesperson Ken Sunshine confirmed on Tuesday.

The civil rights icon was pronounced dead at his home in the upper west side of Manhattan.


Belafonte had an album with the late South African icon Miriam Makeba. Together they won a Grammy for the 1966 album An Evening With Belafonte And Makeba that featured songs such as Train Song, My Angel, Khawuyani-Khanyange, Chove-Chuva and Goin’ Down Jordan.

Belafonte was a barrier-breaker singer and actor best known for The Banana Boat Song and Jump The Line.

His album Calypso reached the top of the Billboard album chart shortly after its release in 1956, and stayed there for 31 weeks.

Coming just before the breakthrough of Elvis Presley, it was said to be the first album by a single artist to sell more than a million copies.

Belafonte stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement.

Early in his career, he befriended the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and became not just a lifelong friend but also one of his most passionate supporters and the quest for racial equality he personified.

He put up much of the seed money to help start the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and was one of the principal fund-raisers for that organisation and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
 
 
He [Harry Belafonte] provided money to bail King and other civil rights activists out of jail, and he took part in the March on Washington in 1963 and his spacious apartment on West End Avenue in Manhattan became King’s home away from home.
Belafonte quietly maintained an insurance policy on King’s life, with his family as the beneficiary, and donated his own money to make sure the family was taken care of after King was assassinated in 1968.
Since the announcement of Belafonte’s death, his fans have been commenting on an old post on his Instagram account and sending condolences.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Harry Belafonte (@calypso_king)


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