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Harry Belafonte Biography

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style (originating in Trinidad & Tobago) with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films, most notably in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

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Harry Belafonte Quotes

America can no longer afford to be as arrogant as we've been. We can no longer exempt ourselves from the global family of concern.

America, Arrogant, Concern, Global, Longer

Not since the early days of the civil rights movement has America been given an opportunity as great as the opportunity we have now. It's one thing for us to avenge our pain, our anger, and our rage by targeting bin Laden and a handful of men who have wrought this villainy. But one should be wise enough to ask, What fueled all this? What continues to sustain the possibility that this will not go away? I think the answer is poverty.

Enough, Pain, Thinking, Villainy, Wise

The human spirit is resilient and truth - no matter how long you abuse it and how long you try to crush it - will, as Dr. King would say, rise up again, and in the final analysis will prevail.

Crush, Human, Kings, Long, Say, Spirit

Carmen Jones was the first all-Negro film that became a great box-office success. It established the fact that pictures with Negro artists, pictures dealing with the folklore of Negro life, were commercially feasible. This was a sign of growth that had occurred in the United States and throughout the world.

Artist, Dealing, Folklore, Growth, Life, Office

Each and every one of you has the power, the will and the capacity to make a difference in the world in which you live in

Change, Inspirational, Live, Make, Power, World

To really know what progress we’re making for children, we have to know how many children we have to begin with. The simple act of counting is an expression of a country’s intent to take care of its people.

Children, Country, Expression, Progress, Simple

Do not submit. It is extremely critical that repression be met full head-on and that it be resisted with every fiber in our being. There is just absolutely no compromise that can be made with it.

Being There, Compromise, Fiber, Met, Repression

Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value. If a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated.

Black, Color, Foremost, Hierarchy, Jews, Tyrants

You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel.

Arrested, Charged, Counsel, Right

John say's it's James who started first, James tells the story in reverse. I drag my belt from off me waist, you should have heard dem screaming round de place.

Belt, Family, Round, Screaming, Should Have, Stories

When I go across the country, whether it's Albuquerque, New Mexico, whether it's Birmingham, Alabama or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there are always forces at play that I choose to relate to and extract inspiration from, and as long as they stay committed to the struggle against poverty, I find a role for myself.

Committed, Country, Extract, Inspiration, Milwaukee, Struggle

Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression.

Fascism, Oppression, Terrorism

In poor environment, I find great inspiration. Many of the men and women whom I admire as artists, the things they write, the songs they sing, the admission is filled with inspired moments to overcome oppression.

Admire, Inspiration, Moments, Poor, Song, Writing

I didn't like The Wiz and it wasn't because black people were doing it. I didn't like The Wiz because it was a badly made movie off a classic. Why are you remaking something unless you have something better in mind?

Black, Like, Mind, People, Remaking

The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a third world dictator and just put all these guys in jail.

Barack, Guy, Jail, Obama, World

I'm called a folk singer, and I'm not too sure about that. I went about my life approaching music not from the point of view of a singer, but from the point of view of an actor. That's how I first started to sing.

Actor, Actors, Life, Music, Singers, Views

If you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in people's rights, if you believe in the harmony of all humankind - then you have no choice but to back Fidel Castro as long as it takes!

Believe, Castro, Justice, Long, Rights, Takes

We Have Got To Bring Corporate America To Its Knees

America, Bring, Corporate, Globalization, Knees

You can cage the singer but not the song.

Cage, Music, Singer, Singers, Song

I don't know what America has really learned. We are too quick to do what's expedient on behalf of our culture of greed and hedonism. We're quite prepared to go to conditions of tyranny in order to sustain that culture, and we do it in the name of democracy, when nothing could be more undemocratic. We do it in the name of saving the values of our society, when the way we behave corrupts those values. We do it in the name of God in whom we believe, when in fact we have corrupted our own vision of the Christian journey.

Believe, Christian, Culture, Hedonism, Journey, Nothing

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