Singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte passed away at the age of 96.
Belafonte, one of the most distinguished African-American performers of the 20th Century, was active in the Civil Rights Movement and was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Belafonte's 1956 "Calypso" album, which featured classics like "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", sat atop the Billboard album charts for 31 weeks.
- The television special "Tonight With Belafonte" won an Emmy in 1960, making Belafonte the first Black performer to win the award.
- Belafonte joined the Civil Rights Movement after meeting Dr. King at Harlem's Abbysnian Church in 1953.
- He provided funding to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped support Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
- During the 1980s, Belafonte helped organize a cultural boycott of South Africa and joined the "We Are the World" recording to raise funds for famine victims in Africa.
- Belafonte published his autobiography, "My Song," in 2011. That year that a documentary about his life was released.
