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Collection Data
- Description
- Harry Belafonte (1927-) 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 photographs, dating from 1925 to the 2010s, contain photographic prints, contact sheets, negatives, and slides that document his career as a singer, actor, and entertainer; advocacy for political and humanitarian causes; awards and honors; personal life with family and friends; relationships with colleagues in the arts; and international and domestic travels.
- Names
- Belafonte, Harry, 1927- (Photographer)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1925 - 2019
- Library locations
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division
- Shelf locator: SCP 186084
- Topics
- Belafonte, David
- Belafonte, Gina
- Belafonte, Julie
- Belafonte, Shari
- Horne, Lena
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
- Makeba, Miriam
- Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013
- Mouskouri, Nana
- Poitier, Sidney
- Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976
- UNICEF
- Actors, Black
- African American political activists
- African American singers
- African Americans in the performing arts
- Jamaican Americans
- Musicians, Black
- Actors
- Civil rights workers
- musicians
- television personalities
- Belafonte, Harry, 1927-
- Genres
- Photographs
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: This biographical note was written in 2022 by Heather Lember and Nathan Evans for the Harry Belafonte papers.
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 (SNCC) 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 Harry Belafonte photographs chronicle Belafonte's performing arts career, involvement with political and humanitarian causes, and personal life with family and friends, especially in the context of international and domestic travel. The collection reveals the many aspects of Belafonte's career and how they often intertwined, as well as the wide array of artistic and political relationships he forged throughout his life. It is arranged into two series: Photographs and Prints, which comprehensively cover Belafonte's professional and personal life; and Slides that document his trips, tours, vacations, and humanitarian missions with photographs mostly taken by Belafonte.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 82 boxes, 9 oversize folders, 1 tube 32.16 linear feet
- Type of Resource
- Still image
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: SCP 186084
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b22823216
- MSS Unit ID: 186084
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 103e7a40-5988-013c-5f06-0242ac110002
