Harry Belafonte to Speak at Duke for 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration
Rev. King called Belafonte "a powerful tactical weapon in the Civil Rights Movement here in America." [Updated 1/10/2006]
Friday, November 18, 2005
A publicity photo of Belafonte is available here. Filming during his talk in Duke Chapel will not be permitted.
Durham, N.C. -- Entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte will speak at Duke
University on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006, as part of the school’s
commemoration of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The event at 3 p.m. in Duke Chapel is free and open to the public; doors open at 2:30 p.m. Parking will be available in the Bryan Center parking garage.
At age 78, Belafonte continues to speak out, sometimes stirring controversy, on political and social issues.
Ben Reese, vice president for institutional equity and co-chair of the King Commemoration Committee, said Duke has received a few messages from people concerned about recent remarks Belafonte reportedly made about the war in Iraq and other issues. "Harry Belafonte was the unanimous choice of the committee and we look forward to welcoming him to the Duke campus," Reese said. "He was a close associate of Dr. King for many years and pledged to carry on Dr. King’s work within the United States and abroad. As a university with a tradition of free speech and academic freedom, Duke welcomes the opportunity to promote discussion among our students and the larger community about what these issues, and Dr. King’s legacy, mean today."
Speaking at the 2005 Congressional Black Caucus national town hall meeting Sept. 22, Belafonte recalled some of King’s last words to him: “‘I sit here deeply concerned that I suspect we’re leading our nation on an integration trip that has us integrating into a burning house.’” Belafonte added, “I don’t think we quite understood how prophetic that remark was.”
Belafonte’s entertainment and activism achievements include an Emmy, a Tony, the National Medal of Arts, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize and the Nelson Mandela Courage Award. His “Calypso” album was the first to sell a million copies, and he was an organizer of the “We are the World” song, which raised millions of dollars for famine relief in Africa. He has served as a cultural adviser for the Peace Corps and a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Belafonte’s support of the Civil Rights Movement took place both in public and behind the scenes. He first met King in New York City in 1956, becoming a confidant and supporter until King’s death in 1968. In 1963, he raised $50,000 for King’s bail after he was jailed in Birmingham, Ala. Later that year, he hosted a meeting in his home between Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and black activists, including the author James Baldwin. And in 1968, when he guest hosted “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” for a week, he had King on the show.
Belafonte will give the keynote address during a service and celebration commemorating King, one of many events at Duke Jan. 13-22 honoring King. The theme of Duke’s 17th annual celebration of King is " Call and Response: Listening, Learning and Living the Legacy."
Willie Jennings, a co-chair of the celebration and a dean in Duke’s DivinitySchool, explained this year’s theme.
“Too often we wrongly interpret Dr. King as a lone respondent to the call for help of suffering humanity or a lone voice calling to us to create a more just society,” he said. “King’s moral vision was formed in a community that embodied both call and response. In song, sermon, speech, planning, march, study, sit-in, non-violent protest, beatings, incarceration, they listened to the call for justice and taught future generations how to respond to that call.”
Events for the 2006 King commemoration, free and open to the public, include:
-- A talk by director Charles Stone III at Richard White Auditorium on Duke’s East Campus on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. Stone directed the movies “Drumline” and “Mr. 3000,” among others.
-- A series of “Freedom School” discussions on contemporary social issues, led by Duke professors and students as well as invited speakers, from 10:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16, in the Bryan University Center’s Von Canon rooms, with a breakfast at 10 a.m. The discussions are inspired by the Freedom Schools organized during the Civil Rights Movement. Topics include the fallout from Hurricane Katrina; the intersection of race, religion and public policy; the concept of white privilege; the application of civil rights to gays and lesbians; and social change in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi.
-- A staged reading of the play “Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark,” written by Duke literature professor Ariel Dorfman and based on the book “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World” by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo. The performance will take place in Reynolds Auditorium in the BryanUniversityCenter at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16. Discussion to follow.
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For details and an updated calendar of events, call (919) 684-8030 or visit the 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration website.
