Years earlier, Harry Belafonte dropped out of high school and joined the Navy. The album "Calypso" held a spot at the top of Billboard's album charts for several weeks in 1956. Daylight come and me want go home.īELAFONTE: When people sing and delight and dance and love it, they don't really understand, unless they study the song, that they're singing a work song that's a song of rebellion.īLAIR: And that song of rebellion was a smash. Count the bananas that I've picked so I can be paid.īELAFONTE: (Singing) Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch. And they are underpaid, and they're begging for the tally man to come and give them an honest count. In 2011, he told NPR the banana boat song was inspired by the vendors he heard singing in the streets.īELAFONTE: The song is a work song. His mother, a domestic worker, took him back to her native Jamaica, where he absorbed the island's culture. Daylight come and me want go home.īLAIR: With his good looks, his shirt unbuttoned to his chest, audiences Black and white adored Belafonte at a time when most of America was still segregated. That was Harry Belafonte.īLAIR: In the 1950s, his recordings for RCA Victor set off a calypso craze.īELAFONTE: (Singing) Work all night on a drink of rum. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has this appreciation.ĮLIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Style, class and charisma. He balanced his activism with his artistry in ways that made people around the world listen. The cause of death was congestive heart failure, according to a family representative. Finally, it shows how everyday Americans from all walks of life confronted themselves, each other, and the burden of the past-and how their fears and courage helped shape our future.We learned today that the singer, actor and human rights activist Harry Belafonte died this morning at his home in New York City.
It also paints a rich and moving portrait of a people, a time, and a nation in the face of powerful change. Johnson, Mahatma Gandhi, and Richard Nixon. offers King's seldom disclosed views on some of the world's greatest and most controversial figures: John F.
Relevant and insightful, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Written in his own words, this history-making autobiography is Martin Luther King: the mild-mannered, inquisitive child and student who chafed under and eventually rebelled against segregation the dedicated young minister who continually questioned the depths of his faith and the limits of his wisdom the loving husband and father who sought to balance his family's needs with those of a growing, nationwide movement and the reflective, world-famous leader who was fired by a vision of equality for people everywhere. brings to life a remarkable man whose thoughts and actions speak to our most burning contemporary issues and still inspire the desires, hopes, and dreams of us all. With knowledge, spirit, good humor, and passion, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
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