Harry Belafonte Interview: Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy of Nonviolence & Speaking Truth

Harry Belafonte explores his long and close friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how Dr. King’s message went beyond race and to the larger issues of humanity. Belafonte talks about first meeting Dr. King’s family in Atlanta, violence Dr. King witnessed in both Chicago and Selma, the difficulty Dr. King experienced for speaking out against the war in Vietnam, and how the practice of nonviolence endured in him after Dr. King’s assassination.

Harry Belafonte is an internationally known American singer, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. Early in his career, Belafonte was a vocal supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was one of Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest confidants and financial supporters. From 1968 until today, Belafonte’s activism would extend beyond domestic concerns including causes such as famine relief in Africa (he was an organizer of the recording sessions for “We Are the World,” in 1985), H.I.V./AIDS prevention and treatment, the abolition of nuclear weapons, education, and the end of apartheid. He has been a recipient of many esteemed awards including the first black performer to receive an Emmy, the first recording artist to sell over a million copies of a single album, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

From the HBO / Kunhardt Film Foundation (KFF) Documentary “King in the Wilderness” that follows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life: from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in 1968, through personal stories of the people who were around him.

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Harry Belafonte, Friend and Artist
Interviewed By: Taylor Branch
Interview Date: April 10, 2017

Chapters:
00:00 Meeting Dr. King
12:32 Dr. King’s Parents
19:42 Daddy King
26:46 Visiting Europe with Dr. King
28:55 Dr King Being Stabbed in Harlem
31:53 Challenging the Institutions of Segregation
37:31 Personal Relationship with Dr. King
46:46 March on Selma
54:38 Taking the Movement into the North
01:06:33 Vietnam and Riverside Speech
01:18:52 White World
01:25:04 Personal Side of Dr. King
01:42:08 Dr. King’s Humor
01:56:23 Dr. King’s Death
02:00:13 Last Meeting with Dr. King
02:09:52 Nonviolence

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