Harry Belafonte, who climbed the pop charts in the 1950s and broke racial barriers with his very personal brand of folk music, later becoming a major force in the civil rights movement, died Tuesday at his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was 96 years old.
At a time when segregation was still widespread and black faces were a rarity on the screens, Belafonte’s rise to the top of show business was historic. He was not the first black entertainer to cross racial lines; Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and others had achieved stardom before him. But no one had made an impact like him, and for a few years no one in music, black or white, was greater.
Born in Harlem to West Indian immigrants, he managed to spark the fashion for Caribbean music with hit records such as “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jamaica Farewell.” His album “Calypso,” which contained both songs, reached the top of the Billboard album chart shortly after its release in 1956 and remained there for 31 weeks.
Coming shortly before Elvis Presley’s breakthrough, it’s said to have been the first album by a single artist to sell more than a million copies.
