Harry belafonte cause of death

Belafonte met Dr. Martin Luther King in the early 1950s when Belafonte went to hear King, who was still an obscure preacher, speak in Harlem. Both men were in their early 20s. The singer went all in, using his financial success to help support the pastor and his family and the civil rights movement.

"I threw my lot in with [King] completely, put a fortune behind the movement," Belafonte told The New York Times in 2017. "Whatever money I had saved went for bonds and bail and rent, money for guys to get in their car and go wherever. I was Daddy Warbucks."

In 1956, Belafonte appeared at a fundraising event in New York with Coretta Scott King and Duke Ellington, and during the 1960s provided financial assistance to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as they planned and executed the Birmingham Campaign, a desegregation campaign that ran from April 3 to May 10, 1963.

During that time, King was arrested and wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." While King was in jail, Belafonte raised $50,000 to help the campaign continue. Belafonte helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

After King was assassinated in 1968, Belafonte served as an executor of King's estate. "Whenever we got into trouble or when tragedy struck," wrote Coretta Scott King in her memoir, "My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.," "Harry has always come to our aid, his generous heart wide open."

Belafonte's activism didn't stop with civil rights in the U.S. He was just as concerned about those suffering under the oppression of apartheid in South Africa or dying from famine, war and disease.

He was instrumental in organizing the star-studded U.S.A. for Africa "We Are the World" recording session for famine relief in Africa in 1985. He sought the release of political prisoners, including South African leader Nelson Mandela. He raised funds for HIV treatment and prevention. He served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps.

He also founded Sankofa, an organization where artists use their talents to create awareness and amplify voices for social change.