Harry Belafonte Reflects On The 50th Anniversary Of The March On Washington/Operation Confidence

Click here: Harry Belafonte Reflects On The 50th Anniversary Of The March On Washington (VIDEO)

Over the last year Harry Belafonte’s inter-generational feud with Jay Z has brought much attention to the image of today’s celebrities. And although the acclaimed entertainer and activist expressed his great distaste for some of today’s high-profile artists’ sense of social responsibility, he has celebrated others in the past for revealing America’s strengths.

With the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington steadily approaching, Belafonte opened up to Smithsonian magazine during an interview to explain some of the things that he was most impressed about while attending the historical rally half a century ago.

“When you looked out at the large crowd and saw so many young faces that were white, and so many that were senior citizens. People linking arms with black people, whose parents may have never linked an arm with a black person before,” he recalled.

“And at one moment we were all laughing at the same time. Being led in song by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Mahalia [Jackson]. And all the other great artists that took the platform. And even the celebrities that spoke the way in which the audience was lit up with a sense of mission and purpose, commonality. And I looked at this mosaic and I said, ‘That’s the America that I believe in. And that’s the America that we need to reveal.’”

In addition to Belafonte’s interview, luxury brand Montblanc is set to launch a special edition, 1963 libretto written by the singer-actor, detailing his personal account of his civil rights involvement, as well as his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the months leading up to the march.

The exclusive manuscript will be made available through Thornwillow Press and distributed to a select group of global leaders, pioneers, executives, patrons, tastemakers, scholars and artists.

Check out an excerpt of Harry Belafonte’s 1963 libretto below, and his Smithsonian magazine in the clip above.

BELAFONTE – MARCH ON WASHINGTON

“I have a dream…I have a dream today…” Can it be 50 years ago that Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington and uttered those immortal words?

 The passage of time from that hot August day of l963 seems infinitely long, yet I can see the day so clearly still: crowds seeping across the National Mall, hundreds cooling their feet in the Reflecting Pool, the podium and reviewing stand set by the Lincoln Memorial for the speech to come.

I can see Martin, too, as he looked that summer before the march: hopeful but anxious, profoundly aware of the challenges we faced. What if the White House, or the FBI, found a pretext to cancel the march? Or if they didn’t, what if no one came? A small crowd would all but destroy Martin’s clout and credibility. At this critical time, the whole civil rights movement might die. 

The year of l963 had begun like any other. But startling events, and new voices, had shaken things up early on. In February, a powerful new book called “The Feminine Mystique” created the cause of feminism and made its first-time author, Betty Friedan, a catalyst for change. Weeks later, the first Beatles album to reach America, “Please, Please Me,” shot up the charts with a whole new sound that changed pop music forever. The very pillars of American society were being knocked down. 

And then came the showdown that would re-ignite the civil rights movement, pushing Dr.King into a standoff with President Kennedy and his brother, the U.S. Attorney General, and making the March on Washington not only possible but necessary: 

Birmingham. Along with Dr.King, I would be pulled into Birmingham, too, and then into planning the march. I’d made a name for myself as an entertainer around the world. To help Dr. King in the way he needed, I’d have to use that celebrity now, to a degree that no star had before. 

I’d first met Martin on a spring Sunday in l956 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. I wasn’t a churchgoer by nature. Usually on Sunday mornings I was sleeping late, after a show at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, or the new Riviera in Vegas, or the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. Church wasn’t my style, but Dr. King had called to ask if I’d come. “You don’t know me, Mr.Belafonte,but my name is Martin Luther King, Jr.” 

I knew who King was. I knew why he was calling, too. Four months into the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott started by Rosa Parks, Dr. King, the boycott’s spiritual leader, had come to New York in desperate search of funds to keep the boycott going. 

I knew that whatever King wanted from me would probably involve writing a check. That was fine. I was at the top of my game as a singer and actor, with best-selling albums and a hit Broadway show. I was making good money, and happy to write checks. The misgivings I had were of a different sort. No one else quite like him had appeared in my lifetime, with the exception of Gandhi. Would he live up to the hype? 

Operation Confidence loves Dr. Martin Luther King and Mr. Harry Belafonte. 

March In Washington To Continue Focus On Civil Rights/Operation Confidence  

Click here: March In Washington To Continue Focus On Civil Rights

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and down the National Mall on Saturday, commemorating the 50th anniversary of King's famous speech and pledging that his dream includes equality for gays, Latinos, the poor and the disabled.

The event was an homage to a generation of activists that endured fire hoses, police abuse and indignities to demand equality for African Americans. But there was a strong theme of unfinished business.

"This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration," said Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of the slain civil rights leader. "Nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration. The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more."

Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said he would not be in office, nor would Barack Obama be president, without those who marched.

"They marched in spite of animosity, oppression and brutality because they believed in the greatness of what this nation could become and despaired of the founding promises not kept," Holder said.
Holder mentioned gays and Latinos, women and the disabled as those who had yet to fully realize the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. Others in the crowd advocated organized labor, voting rights, revamping immigration policies and access to local post offices.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the only surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, railed against a recent Supreme Court decision that effectively erased a key anti-discrimination provision of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis was a leader of a 1965 march, where police beat and gassed marchers who demanded access to voting booths."I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Ala., for the right to vote," he said. "I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us. You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You've got to stand up. Speak up, speak out and get in the way."

Organizers expected there were about 100,000 people who participated in the event, the precursor to the actual anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1963, march that drew some 250,000 to the National Mall and ushered in the idea of massive, nonviolent demonstrations.

Marchers began arriving early Saturday, many staking out their spots as the sun rose in a clear sky over the Capitol. By midday, tens of thousands had gathered on the National Mall.

Lynda Chambers, 58, gave up a day's pay to attend because her retail job does not provide paid vacation. Even as a 7-year-old at the time of the original march, she felt alienated and deprived of her rights. Remembering those feelings, she said, she was compelled to make the trip Saturday.
"I wanted to have some sort of connection to what I have always known, as far as being a black person," she said.

Longtime activist Al Sharpton, now a MSNBC host, implored young black men to respect women and reminded them that two of the leading figures in the civil rights movement of the 1960s were women.
"Rosa Parks wasn't no ho," he said. "And Fannie Lou Hamer wasn't no bitch."

Speakers frequently mentioned persistent high unemployment among blacks, which is about twice that of white Americans, and the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. Along the Mall, Martin's picture was nearly as ubiquitous as King's.

Then, people crowded the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and could get close to King to hear his "I Have a Dream" speech. Saturday's speakers also were on the memorial's steps, but metal barriers kept people away from the reflecting pool and only a small group of attendees was allowed near the memorial Saturday.

There was a media area and VIP seating. Everyone else had been pushed back and watched and listened to the speeches on big-screen televisions. Police were stationed atop the Lincoln Memorial.

After the speeches, marchers walked from there, past the King Memorial, then down the National Mall to the Washington Monument, a distance of just over a mile.

On the day of the anniversary, President Barack Obama will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He will be joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Churches and groups have been asked to ring bells at 3 p.m. Wednesday, marking the exact time King spoke.

Joseph Lowery, who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with King, urged the crowd to continue working for King's ideals.

"We've come to Washington to commemorate," the 92-year-old civil rights leader said, "and we're going home to agitate."

Operation Confidence is humbly grateful to Dr. King for all that he has done for African Americans, the nation and the world .