Harry Belafonte, the Pioneering Artist-Activist
b'We take it for granted that entertainers can\\u2014and probably should\\u2014advocate for the causes they believe in, political and otherwise. That wasn\\u2019t always the case: at one time, entertainers were supposed to entertain, and little else. Harry Belafonte, who died on April 25th at the age of ninety-six, pioneered the artist-activist approach. One of the most celebrated singers of his era, he had a string of huge hits\\u2014\\u201cThe Banana Boat Song,\\u201d \\u201cMama Look a Boo Boo,\\u201d \\u201cJamaica Farewell\\u201d\\u2014while appearing as the rare Black leading man in the movies. At the same time, Belafonte used his platform to influence public opinion. He was a key figure in the civil-rights movement, a confidant of Martin Luther King\\u2019s; a generation later, he worked with Nelson Mandela to help bring down apartheid in South Africa. Belafonte joined The New Yorker Radio Hour in 2016, when the staff writer Jelani Cobb visited him at his office in Manhattan.\\nThis segment originally aired September 30, 2016.'