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Collection Data
- Description
- Harry Belafonte is a Jamaican-American musician, actor, and activist best known for popularizing calypso music with international audiences, and his involvement in the American Civil Rights movement. His collection contains project files, correspondence, scrapbooks, press materials, scores, lyrics, and scripts that chronicle his career as a singer, songwriter, actor, public speaker, and advocate for political and humanitarian causes. Belafonte's papers reveal the business aspects of his performance projects, source material for his acting and singing career, and organizing efforts associated with the political causes he championed.
- Names
- Belafonte, Harry, 1927- (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1872 - 2017
- Library locations
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Shelf locator: Sc MG 933
- Topics
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
- Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013
- Poitier, Sidney
- Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976
- Actors, Black
- African American civil rights workers
- African American singers
- African Americans -- Civil rights -- History
- African Americans -- Political activity
- African Americans in the performing arts
- Authors, Black
- Calypso (Music)
- Folk musicians
- Jamaican Americans
- Musicians, Black
- Politicians -- United States -- correspondence
- Screenwriters
- Television personalities
- Actors
- Civil rights workers
- musicians
- South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century
- Genres
- Ephemera
- Correspondence
- Notated music
- Scores
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr. in 1927 in New York City. Belafonte's parents were Jamaican immigrants, and he spent much of his childhood in Jamaica. After attending George Washington High School in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, Belafonte enlisted in the United States Navy in 1944, and served in World War II.
Upon returning from the War, Belafonte acted in productions for the American Negro Theatre in Harlem, and took acting lessons at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School. He began singing at clubs in order to pay for his classes, leading to a record contract with Roost Records in 1949, and RCA Victor in 1953. Between 1953 and 1954, Belafonte made his Broadway debut with John Murray Anderson's Almanac, a performance which earned him a Tony Award.
Belafonte's 1956 album, Calypso, helped popularize the style of Caribbean folk music, and became the first record to sell over a million copies. It contained the hit song, "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)," which Belafonte would be closely associated with for the rest of his career. He also starred in several films during the 1950s, including Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).
Belafonte has appeared in and produced numerous television series and specials. In 1959, he became the first Jamaican-American to win an Emmy for Revlon Revue: Tonight with Belafonte. He also produced the television movie The Strollin' Twenties (1966) and television special A Time for Laughter (1967); filled in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in February 1968; and appeared on such programs as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and The Flip Wilson Show.
Throughout the 1960s, Belafonte continued to record albums in various styles, such as pop, blues, gospel, folk, and show tunes. After releasing his final calypso album in 1971, Belafonte focused mainly on performing and toured internationally. He released five more albums in the 1970s and 1980s, including Turn the World Around (1977), whose title track he performed on The Muppet Show in 1978. In 1984, Belafonte scored and produced Beat Street, a film about New York City hip-hop culture. Other film credits include The Angel Levine (1970), White Man's Burden (1996), Kansas City (1996), and Bobby (2006).
In addition to music and acting, Belafonte has been an advocate for humanitarian and political causes throughout his life. His political views were greatly influenced by his mentor, Paul Robeson, and led to Belafonte being blacklisted in Hollywood in 1950. A decade later, he appeared in a campaign ad for John F. Kennedy, performed at his inauguration, and was appointed as a cultural advisor to the Peace Corps by Kennedy.
Belafonte was a key figure in the American Civil Rights movement, and became a close confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr., who he bailed out of jail during the 1963 Birmingham Campaign. Belafonte also provided funding for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCCC) and the 1961 Freedom Rides, participated in numerous rallies and protests, and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom. During this time, he began speaking out against apartheid in South Africa; his final studio album, Paradise in Gazankulu (1988), featured ten apartheid protest songs. Belafonte also helped facilitate "We Are the World," a charity song for famine relief, and served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In the 1990s and 2000s, he supported the campaign against AIDS in South Africa and raised education awareness in Kenya.
Belafonte has received dozens of awards for his music, acting, and activism. His awards include the Kennedy Center Honors (1989), National Medal of Arts (1994), Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2000), Domestic Human Rights Award (2004), BET Humanitarian Award (2006), and NAACP Spingarn Medal (2013). In 2011, Sing Your Song, a documentary about Belafonte's life and career, was released. His memoir, My Song, was published the same year.
Belafonte has four children: two with his first wife, Marguerite Belafonte, and two with his second wife, Julie Belafonte. As of 2022, he resides in New York City with his third wife, Pamela Belafonte.
- Content: The collection dates from 1872 to 2017 (bulk 1946-2017), and details Belafonte's performing arts career and involvement with political and humanitarian causes. The collection is arranged into five series consisting of Project Files that comprise correspondence and business files associated with Belafonte's artistic career; Politics and Activism files; Press and Publicity materials that cover Belafonte's public persona; Scripts that span Belafonte's career as an actor and producer; and Lyrics and Notated Music from his music career. Belafonte's papers chronicle his decades-long professional life as an actor and musician, the business management involved in sustaining a successful artistic career, and the ways in which he incorporated political activism into his creative work.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 113 boxes, 4 oversize folders, 4 tubes 40.87 linear feet
- Extent: 124 computer files 7.9 megabytes
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: Sc MG 933
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b22783213
- MSS Unit ID: 29990
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 056bf6e0-3720-013d-84a7-0242ac110002
