Celebrating The Life of Harry Belafonte

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today is Tuesday, April twenty fifth, twenty twenty three. Coming
up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Black Star Network.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Harabella Fonte, the actor, singer, activist, humanitarian, passed away today
at the age of ninety six. Over the next two hours,
we will pay tribute to a remarkable human being, a
world leader, someone who is the through line from Paul
Robeson to MLK to Nelson Mandela, all the things that

(00:33):
he did, tremendous life lived, and we will celebrate that
life and hear from many people of course who knew
him well, share remarkable stories, talk about his impact as
well as walk through all the amazing things that he
did in the ninety six.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Years that he walked on this earth.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's time to bring the phone on the special edition
of Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, he's going, whatever the past, he's on it.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Whatever it is.

Speaker 5 (01:05):
He's got the fine and wait it believes he's right
on top and it's rolling. Best believe he's going putting
it out from his Boston news to politics with entertainment.
Just spookcase.

Speaker 6 (01:19):
He's going.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's uncle growing, It's rolling.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Marta yeay, rolling.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
He's Poky's breast.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
She's real.

Speaker 7 (01:38):
Good question, No, he's rolling, Martin.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Martin, folks.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I'm broadcasting here in Dallas, flying here to surprise my dad.
Today's his seventy six birthday. And while I was on
the plane this morning, flying from Washington, d C. My
text messages began to blow up alerted me to the
passing of Harriet Belafonte. Was extremely sad to get that

(03:03):
news of the passing of mister B. For the past
eleven twelve years, we struck up a great friendship there
in our Black Star Network studios. You see a portrait
that I commissioned of Harry Belafonte. It has been draped
in black right there to recognize his passing. That portrait

(03:27):
right there speaks to how much I felt about him,
that I wanted to honor him in his life and
his legacy and what he has stood for in our studios.
He was one who was committed to African Americans and
the African diaspora. When you look at his life and career,
he was simply not just a singer, and he was

(03:49):
a great internationally acclaimed singer.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
He was not just an actor.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
A great actor as well, but he was indeed an activist,
somebody who cared deeply about the human condition, someone who
understood the importance of using his voice to speak to
the issues that matter, to address those and fight for
people all across this world. He was simply not limited

(04:16):
to African Americans in this country, whether it was Cuba,
whether it was the continent of Africa, whether it was
the Caribbean, whether it was Venezuela, Brazil, France, Europe. He
was someone who went anywhere in this world and was
known as a leader. And for him to pass away

(04:38):
just an outpouring of love and affection from people all
across this country. His organization Sankofa. They released a statement
with regards to his particular passing. Let's pull that statement up.
The statement reads, on behalf of his daughter Gina, granddaughter Maria, and.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Their na Profitsankopha dot Org.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
We appreciate the outpouring of condolencis during this difficult time,
as they agreed the loss of their beloved father, grandfather
and friend. Harry Belafonte was a true icon in the
music industry and a tireless advocate for social justice. His
legacy will live on through his music is activism and
the countless lives he touched. The family and organization would

(05:23):
like to thank Harry Belafonte's fans and supporters for their
kind words and condolences. The world is mourning a legend,
but a family is grieving the loss of their patriarch.
We kindly ask for your understanding and support during this
period of mourning.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
The news broke after about ten a m. Eastern.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
His longtime spokesman Ken Sunshine announced his passing this morning
at his home in New York City. The cause was
congestive heart failure. Several years ago, mister b suffered a stroke,
but that did not slow him down. He kept moving,
he kept being involved, He kept attending various things. But

(06:06):
it was about four years ago when he withdrew from
the public in terms of not attending events. She might
remember last year we covered the ninety fifth celebration. It
took place in New York City. He was not in attendance,
but he was watching the live stream of that particular broadcast.
But even up until his last days, he was very

(06:28):
much involved in the issue that he cared about, constantly
pushing the boundaries when it comes.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
To activism, when it comes to his involvement in the arts.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
He was not someone who shied away from and Susan Taylor,
the longtime Essence leader, would often tell me that her
husband keptra They did not live far. Mister b would
often reach out to him, dispatching him to come to
his home to do certain things.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
He was still an incredibly busy man.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
As we said, of course, the outpouring of love and
support across the country. This is a statement released by
President Joe Biden.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
That came out about an hour ago. So this is
what it says.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Jill and I or SATIN for the passing of a
groundbreaking American who used his talent, his fame, and his
voice to help redeem the soul of our nation. Harra
Bellafonte was born to Caribbean parents in harl Of, New York,
on March first, nineteen twenty seven. When segregation was the
order of American society to our nation's benefit, Harry never
accepted those false narratives and unjust boundaries. He dedicated his

(07:35):
entire life to breaking barriers and bridging divides. As a
young man, motivated to find his purpose, he became mesmerized
by theater when he saw a performance of the American
Negro Theater in Manhattan as one of America's original breakthrough
singers and performers. He would go on to garner a
storehouse a first, the first black matine idol, the first
recording artist to sell over a million records, also the

(08:00):
first black mail Broadway actor to win a Tony Award,
the first black producer to win an Emmy Award, in
one of the highest paid entertainers of his time, among
other accolades. But he used his fame and fortune for
the public good. Throughout his extraordinary career. He became a
powerful ally that doctor Martin Luther King Junior and other
giants and for civil rights movement. He raised money and

(08:21):
donated resources to post bail for activists jail for acts
of civil disobedience. He provided the critical funds to launch
the Freedom Rights He lobbied against the part tied in South.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Africa for the release of Nelson.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Mandela was one of the visionaries behind We Are the
World and Innovative record Release to raise millions of dollars
to support humanitarian aid and Sedan and Ethiopian. For these
and other humanitarian and artistic efforts, he was conferred with
a Kennedy Senator Honor, the National Medal of the Arts,
and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Harry Belafonda's accomplishments are legendary,

(08:55):
and his legacy of outspoken advocacy, compassion, and respect for
human dignity will endure. He will be remembered as a
great American. We sent our deepest condolences to his family
and legions of amyras across the country and the world.
Vice President Kamala Harris also released the statement, We're going
to have that later for you in the show, Folks,
over the next couple of hours, we will hear from

(09:15):
a number of people who want to share their thoughts
and reflections with regards to mister b Folks who worked
closely with him. You will hear from actors Wendell Pierce,
director of Spike Lee, doctor Greg Carr, Department Back of
America students at Howard University of Rashan Robinson.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Will hear from so many other folks as they share
the thoughts.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
And reflections about the passing of the legendary of the
icon Harry Belafonte. Will also, folks, be sharing with you
a number of interviews that we did with folks at
his ninety fifth birthday celebration we broadcast live there in
New York.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Will also share you a number of.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Other photos, as well as excerpts from two one on
one interviews I did with mister Bellafonte in his office
there in New York City.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
COULDA Go to a Break?

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Will be right back for the special edition of Roland
Martin Unfiltered, as we honor the life and legacy of
Hair Belafonte, who passed away to day at the age
of ninety six.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Ninety six. We'd be right back the Blackstar Network.

Speaker 8 (11:00):
My daughter, I don't know where she was, so I
had to figure out how to survive, how to eat,
how to live. I don't want to go into the details,
because she's here first of all to me, don't want
me telling that story, but possession of her.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
The family broke down, fell apart.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
I was homeless.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
I had to figure out.

Speaker 8 (11:21):
I didn't have a manager, an agent, or anybody anymore.
And I'm the talent, so I got.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
To figure out how to be the agent.

Speaker 8 (11:29):
I had to figure out how does business work?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,
you're about covering these things that matter to us, us
speaking to our issues and concerns.

Speaker 9 (11:56):
This is a genuine people power movement.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
That we're not getting.

Speaker 10 (12:01):
You get it when you spread the word.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
We wish to plead our own cause to long have
others spoken for us.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay
for it. This is about covering us invest in black
on media. Your dollars matter.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
We don't have to keep asking them to cover our
so please support us in what we do.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Folks. We want to hit two thousand people fifty dollars
this month. Waits one hundred thousand dollars. We're behind one
hundred thousand, so we want to hit that. Y'all. Money
makes this possible. Check some money orders go to peel
box file seven one ninety six, Washington, d C two
zero zero three seven.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Dash zero one nine six the cash apples dollars sign
r m unfiltered. Paypalers are Martin unfiltered, venmo is arem unfiltered.
Zeilas rolling at Rolandesmartin dot com. Let's talk about your
long time comrade in arms, Hair Belafonte. He is a

(12:57):
tremendous individual, just an amazing life. Why did you want
to be here to make sure that you celebrated his
ninety fifth birthday.

Speaker 11 (13:07):
Because a long time ago, when I was a very
young kid, chat he recruited me.

Speaker 6 (13:16):
Really, he goes to recruiting people. That's what he said.

Speaker 11 (13:18):
Let's he come and say how many I mean, I mean,
how many people want to walk with him? You know
there's an event, there's an issue. You know, I said
I want He says, I walk with Mandela, I walked
with King, I walked with Malcolm.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
I walked with all of them. And that's that's what
he brings to the table. He brings authenticity.

Speaker 11 (13:39):
It's always brought authenticity, and that's what That's what Harry
Beller findings about.

Speaker 12 (13:44):
One other thing is he's always of course he's always
got loud sounds in New York City. One of the
things that he's always been about as well is is
understanding the power of celebrity but using it to be
a change agent as well.

Speaker 7 (14:02):
And he said it was Paul Rochen who's seeing.

Speaker 6 (14:04):
Who passed that it is with Paul say that artists
of the gave cheapness the truth. That's Carrie.

Speaker 11 (14:10):
He said that we have a responsibility not only as
citizen but his artists as well.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
And that's what what Harry is said about.

Speaker 11 (14:19):
And that's what that that's what this ninety five years
of commitment from the first time. Imagine imagine him sitting
around at nineteen years old with w B divorce.

Speaker 6 (14:31):
Robeson of them sitting.

Speaker 11 (14:33):
Around, and you can imagine them sitting knights in hughes,
them sitting around the things.

Speaker 6 (14:38):
Ruby D.

Speaker 11 (14:40):
I mean a time of an extraordinary change, post World
War two United States, the changes that were need to
happen and destined to happen.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
He was right there as an artist and an activist
and a citizen.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Got it. Folks.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Joining us right now on Roland Martin on Filter to
remember Harry Belafonte is Angelo Pinto. He is the co
founder of Untold Freedom and the activist in Residents at
Yale University. Rashad Robinson is the president of Color of Change.
We also have doctor Gred Carr, Department of Afro American
Studies at Howard Universe. Glad to have all three of

(16:02):
you here, Greg, I want to start with you. In
the open I talked about the through line and that
is Paul Ropson, the great activist, entertainer, someone who understood
the importance of activism. He was a mentor to Harra Belafonte.

(16:24):
So when you think about hair Belafonte again, living ninety
six years, he is to connect from Paul Ropson, to
Doctor King, to Nelson Mandela and to so many others.
This is someone who you cannot just say, oh, this
is somebody who was just busy in the fifties and sixties.

(16:47):
His activism, being on the front lines, extends the present
day folks in Hollywood, Jesse Williams, Jamie Fox said, the Entertainer,
and so many others.

Speaker 13 (17:01):
Absolutely, he is the through line.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
First of all.

Speaker 13 (17:03):
Condolences to the entire family, his wife's children and his grandchildren,
to the entire community. To you Rowland, I know you
knew and very close to mster b. Heavy birthday to
your pops, by the way, that's a beautiful thing. Yeah, man,
Harold George Bellefonte Junior. He made his ninety sixth birthday
more and Mars the first, nineteen twenty seven. His father

(17:26):
from Martinique, his mother from Jamaica, born in Harlem, but
they returned to Jamaica. He was with his mother and
brothers when he went back there for a few years
before coming back in nineteen forty. Some people call him
a high school dropout. He did indeed leave George Washington
High School in Upper Manhattan nineteen forty four, joined the Navy,

(17:47):
and in fact that's where he met his first wife, Marguerite.

Speaker 6 (17:52):
He was.

Speaker 13 (17:54):
In d c in the area and she was at
Hampton University of Psychology student at the time, and they
got married. I think it was nineteen forty eight, but anyway,
I went through all that to say his foundation, in
fact was the African diaspora, and Paul Robson was a
huge influence on him, but he was not Paul Robson,
and he's very clear about that. Paul Robson's career was
destroyed by this country, and Harry Belafonte made a very

(18:15):
deliberate choice to try to thread the needle between standing
and his beliefs, standing for his people and somehow using
commercial success to leverage resources. He's very clear about that.
Bellafonte was not completely entrenched in bringing the past forward
as the past that he was known as the Calypso King,

(18:37):
which caused some controversy because he wasn't from Trinidad. Some
of the Trinities said, we got our own king. We
were not King at Carnival. Belafante's point was, I am
anchored in tradition, but I don't just bring tradition forward.
I sing my song. And he learned that from Paul Robson.
When you see him there with Martin King, it's important
to remember and people, folks might want to jot this down.
The committee to defend Martin Luther King when the State

(18:58):
of Alabama tried to put that King in jail for
taxing evasion. That's when Bellefonte and his friend Sidney Poitier
began to leverage their contacts and build their abilities to
create what we will never see again in terms of
a single entertainer, and that is someone who reached into
all the worlds and leverage resources. Harry Belafonte put the

(19:19):
financial floor in many ways under the Student I Violent
Coordinating Committee injected into the snick when King said, yeah,
you can raise money to help me pay for lawyers.
And by the way, King won that case. He said,
but I also want you to put together money for
bail fund. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sometime traveling south in suitcases, brother and as I know,
you know Roland, you probably play some of those interviews

(19:41):
y T Walker and Andrew Young and them saying, you know,
we go to New York to that apartment that Bellefonte had,
and I want to hear the other brothers. So I'm
going to end with this and we get suitcases of
money and bring it south to fund the movement. But
the place that Bellefonte lived in there on the west
side of Manhattan, that apartment fascinating his first wife, Margarita.

(20:02):
They were trying to rent and then to get an
apartment on the east side of Manhattan, and these white
folks would not allow them to rent. So what did
Bellafonte do? Formed a corporation with some white dudes, created
the corporation, bought an apartment building, and then leased out
the fifth floor of it to himself. And that was
the place where Bellefonte and Crue created a whole institutional

(20:26):
process for putting an economic floor under the civil rights movement,
something Paul Robson was robbed of his ability to do
by the very country that persecuted him, and in many
ways embraced Bellefontine, not realizing that Bellefonte in some ways
was the inside man, the Robeson's outside men, Rashard.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
If anyone reads the memoir of Hair Bellafonte, they will
realize that he was very cognizant of how Paul Robson
died essentially broke when the federal government took his passport.
He could not make money, perform and in the last
years of his life were extremely difficult. Belafonte said he

(21:07):
wasn't going to allow that to happen.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
So he was very.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Smart with his money, and he also diversified his money,
but he never allowed that to stop the activision. And
what I really I want people to understand is that
folks like you and so many others, he was very
much about connecting with young activists today and serving as

(21:37):
an elder, not pushing them away, not lecturing them, but saying,
let me embrace, let me help build, and frankly, use
what I have to help these upstart organizations and activists
all across the country.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Men and women.

Speaker 14 (21:57):
Yeah, I mean, he he proved died so much historical
context and was so comfortable doing it, so open to.

Speaker 6 (22:08):
Spending time.

Speaker 14 (22:11):
Providing stories from the past, listening to what the current
challenges were. You know, I think about all the ways
in which he kept wanting and open to adding more
chairs to the table. I think of a number of
different times that I had the opportunity, But I do
want to just start off by once again also sending

(22:33):
my condolences to the family, to his wife, and to
all of his kids. I'm thinking a lot right now
about my dear, dear friend Gina, who Gina Belafonte, who
I just was talking to two weeks ago about some
shared work in the culture and media space and all
the work that she's continuing to do. And you know, Roland,

(22:53):
we were just together with her at his ninety fifth
celebration where Sankofa honored me and Color of Change with
the Human Rights Award. But thinking about some of the
times where I was able to be in the room
and where he used his platform to uplift the work
of Color of Change, the work of other organizations that

(23:16):
he helped to start. And I know Angelo is going
to talk about his work and his contributions to the
work here in New York and the work around the country,
but he was unapologetic about charting a clear line to
justice and freedom and intoviting people to be on that road.

(23:36):
And then too constantly providing the kind of stories and
frameworks in background that both challenged and inspired us but
made us feel like we could be part of this work.
I also think about from my own work and the
work of doing culture change advocacy, of being able to
sort of meld arts and culture with political and policy change,

(24:01):
and there was just no one who did more to
show us what was possible to create possibility models than
mister B. And I, you know, Roland, I just want
to tell one quick story, and it's that, you know,
there was this event that san Kopha did at at
mister Quincy Jones's house and mister B and Jesse Williams

(24:23):
were going to be in conversation.

Speaker 15 (24:25):
And I get to the event early.

Speaker 14 (24:28):
Raoul and Gina, who were running Sankopha together at the time,
invited me Raoul Roach and Gina Belafonte and invited me
to come a little early to spend time with mister B.
And so I get there and I and I see
mister B and he was like, so, what are you
going to say when you open up the program? And
I was like, well, I don't think I'm speaking, And
they're like, oh, you are definitely speaking at this program,

(24:49):
and I I had this moment of like, well, you
don't want to you don't want to go before mister B,
and you don't want to follow mister B. And so
there was just no way to win there. I remember
that night because it was a who's who in Black
Hollywood from Danny Glover and cch Pounder and Michael Ely

(25:12):
and Rosario Dawson and John Legend and so many other
people were in that room listening to the work of Sankofa,
listening to mister B's stories of justice, but also uplifting
other organizations who were working at the time and working
for justice, including mine. The idea that he was constantly
thinking about the next generation, thinking about the platforms he uplifted,

(25:36):
thinking about the way the work was constantly evolving, and
being willing to be in those conversations is inspiring. And
I think it's a story for all of us doing
this work together today. I'm a reminder of our responsibility
to continue to think about those who are coming behind us,
not only.

Speaker 15 (25:54):
What we do, but what we leave behind.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Angelo the point where Shad made there, I think, you know,
it really is important in terms of the commitment to activism.
The reality is he challenged today's young artists to do more.
He was not someone who accepted folks saying, hey, you

(26:19):
know what, I'm busy singing, I'm busy acting, I'm busy
with all of this here. No, I mean I saw
him literally challenge folks to say, you can do more.
You are more than just a singer or an actor.

Speaker 10 (26:36):
Yeah, it's interesting because mister B challenged everybody.

Speaker 16 (26:39):
There was nobody that mister Belafonte encountered, even us as
young activists for the first time, who he would challenge
us in our activism and the work that we were
doing and how we thought about the work. But I
remember when Trayvon Martin happened, and he thought to challenge
Jay Z and other artists because he felt like they

(27:01):
weren't doing enough, they weren't using their platform to raise
the issues of our time, and not to attack individuals.
But I think he was sophisticated enough to understand that
his voice would impact those individuals. And if you look
at the trajectory of time, from those moments, individuals began

(27:22):
to use their voice to make a difference for our people.
So I think mister B was tremendously sophisticated at understanding
how he used his voice. Of course, folks talked about
how he knew how to use his celebrity to influence
the movement, and he was a social architect in that way.
But I think the other piece of what he was
always intentional about doing was connecting more people to the movement.

(27:46):
He had been so connected to the Robesins, to the Kings,
to the Mendelas that he understood how we were all
interconnected and how even movements of twenty thirty fifty, one
hundred years before us was connected to the work that
we were doing.

Speaker 10 (28:01):
Now.

Speaker 16 (28:02):
He knew that more people involved in the movement.

Speaker 10 (28:05):
Was precisely what we needed.

Speaker 16 (28:07):
And not only did he nurture us as young activists,
and we used his office like it was our apartment
during the Eric Garner uprisings and so many other movements
that we were paying attention to in New York and
throughout the country, but he connected us to other activists
around the nation. When trayvon Martin happened, he bought Philip
Agnew and the Dream Defenders to New York City, and

(28:29):
that's where I first met phil you know, sitting down
in New York City having dinner celebrating.

Speaker 10 (28:35):
Mister Bee for his birthday.

Speaker 16 (28:36):
He believed in us and valued our work, and he
often would say that he wouldn't trade in his life
or anything. He got to be next to the most
impactful people and the people that he felt like were
changing the world, and he did that with us even
throughout his life.

Speaker 10 (28:54):
He brought us close.

Speaker 16 (28:55):
He realized that he needed to nurture us, and I
think there was a part of us and our work
and our commitment to social justice that also nurtured him.
And for me, we constantly got to be close to
a pillar to a museum who was so intricate at
moving black life forward that I think sometimes we forget,

(29:20):
and it's great today that we get to take pause
and reflect on the life of mister b I was
watching Sing Your Song today because I said, you know,
let me watch this documentary again. That chronicle sum of
him to be and he never let us forget Robeson
and he mentioned that as a as a young theater,

(29:42):
a Thesbian Robesen came to visit him and he said
to him, if you get them to sing your song,
they will ask and be inquisitive. About who you are.
And I think mister b leaves that mark on all
of us to sing our song, to live in our
purpose and to live in our gifts. And that's from
the That's the place from which we transform and change

(30:03):
the world. And he's a true testament and embodiment of God,
and he left his hand on all of.

Speaker 10 (30:08):
Us to do that as well.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Jid's ho tepe one second, gotta go to a break.
We can't come back more on the.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Life and legacy of the great Harry Belafonte. You're watching
this tribute right here on Roland Martin unfiltered on the
Black Star Network.

Speaker 17 (31:19):
Hatred on the Streets, a horrific scene white nationalist rally
that descended into deadly violence.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
We white people are moving their.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
Their mind.

Speaker 18 (31:32):
As an angry approach, from mock storm to the US
Capital to six show.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
We're about to see the lives what I call white
minority resistance.

Speaker 19 (31:39):
We have seen white folks in this country who simply
cannot tolerate black folks voting.

Speaker 18 (31:45):
I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of
violent denial.

Speaker 6 (31:50):
This is part of American history.

Speaker 18 (31:52):
Every time that people of color have made progress, whether
real or symbolic there has been but Carol Anderson at
every university called white rage as a backlash.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Since the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaaloo
Boys America.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
There's going to be more of this.

Speaker 20 (32:07):
It's all the proud boy of God.

Speaker 21 (32:09):
This country is getting increasingly racist and its behaviors and
its attitudes because of the fear of white.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
People, the fee that they're taking our jobs, they're taking
our resources, they're taking out women.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
This is white Field.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
On the next A Balance Life with me, doctor Jackie.
We talked about a hard cold fact not all healthcare
is created equal in this country, especially if you're a
person of color.

Speaker 22 (32:49):
So many of us black families, we rely upon each
other heavily. A lot of us aren't necessarily sure how
to best communicate with our healthcare providers.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
How to take charge and balance the skills your life
made a pendo anest. That's next on a Balanced Line
on Blackstar.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Network, joining me.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Now, you know she popped a little bit early, that
she'd have walked the red carpet is one of his dallars,
Gina Bella Fonte.

Speaker 7 (33:18):
What was happening was that piece, y'all?

Speaker 12 (33:21):
So this is of course You've got a lot of
people who are coming out on this cold night, and
just how important was it for you sendkofa to do this,
to celebrate and to see folks want to celebrate your dad.

Speaker 23 (33:34):
Well, I'm overwhelmed by the support. It's been an amazing,
amazing feeling to not only witness but to be a
part of this evening in celebration of his life and legacy.
And also not only is his ninety fifth birthday, but
it's been tenth anniversary of Sankopa dot org and you
were there from the beginning of that too, and it
has grown. I'm excited for people really understanding what it

(33:56):
is that we do and championing us to continue to
do the work.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Well, folks don't realize is that your dad does not
know what retirement means. I talked to Susan Taylor a lot,
and she said that he's always calling Kevra Burns, her husband, over.
He always has notes, he always has things that he's
working on. He's got a book projects, documentary projects, and
so ninety five has not slowed him down.

Speaker 23 (34:20):
Not at all. You know, I had to run over
this run a show with him and I told him
who was coming and I told him what I was saying.

Speaker 7 (34:26):
I left a few surprises for him because he will.

Speaker 23 (34:28):
Be watching this tonight. And I wanted to just have
my daughter come over to sis, granddaughter Maria, and she's
here celebrating. She also works with us at sankopa dot org.
She runs our social media. She helps me get all
the teas and the eyes dotted and crossed. And she
also is a budding and wonderful director in her own
right and actress. And I'm just really excited that we

(34:50):
were able to have generations in the hall tonight.

Speaker 7 (34:52):
So he would not let y'all do this on your own.
What do you mean you did it on our own?

Speaker 6 (34:58):
Yeah, but you do it to run on the bum.

Speaker 23 (35:01):
Well, you know, I'm grateful for that. I mean, what
better mentor to have? I mean, he is got so
much style, he's got so much grace. He's an amazing storyteller,
and he's the best mentor to have, especially for a
nightlight tonight.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Across you, you're combining music in art dealing with social justice.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Why this? Why now?

Speaker 4 (36:05):
The absence of black presence by celebrity is a serious
loss to our potential use of power to make a difference.
So I invited all the artists I could think of
to comfort to v Today festival down in Atlanta to
celebrate criminal justice. As a festival, it's called many rivers

(36:29):
to cross based upon a great song, and in it
all the artists will sing to songs that in content
speak about the plight of black people. So artists that
the artist, that the artist. I have looked at all
the songs that will be sung. I look at what
Jamie Fox will be saying and what he will sing.

(36:52):
I've looked at John Legend and what he will say
and what he will sing. I've looked at Common and
looked at Alice Smith. I've taught to Chuck d whom
I love madly and what he brings to the table.
And I think those who come will be more than
rewarded with what they see of black presence speaking to

(37:12):
these issues. I also add this, and I'll be through
on this subject. It is that what also surprises me
is the number of artists that told me no, really.

Speaker 8 (37:25):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
As a matter of fact, there are some artists that
told me yes in the light of enthusiasm in the
first rush and where they were oppressed to really define
what would be asked to them what kind of songs
to sing and what they should be turning their attention
to comment on stepped away. They don't want the blemish,

(37:50):
they don't want the burden of responsibility. And I was
really quite surprised.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
You feel.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
I feel sad because the particular people that I'm talking
about that stepped away were the ones that I at
least suspected that would.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Have done that.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
And because I have no right to hold anybody hostage
to what I think and what I want to do,
they're exempt from any active coming on board, so to speak.
I don't want to blackmail them into this. So when
these artists said no, I said.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Okay, I hear you, But you do remember who said no.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
I'll never forget, and on occasion, I'll make sure they
don't forget either.

Speaker 20 (38:39):
I think mister B's vision has always been to bring
together activists, and a lot of activists.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
Are connected to artists.

Speaker 20 (38:49):
You know, we certainly work with a lot of artists,
and working with mister Bellefonte, you know, he constantly talks
about artists are the gatekeepers to truth, civilization's radical voice,
and we as activists really need to come together to
plan what our next move is going to be.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Collectively, we need.

Speaker 20 (39:12):
A black and brown agenda and we need a strategy
in order for implementation, because we are now going to
be moving into a different cycle where there are some
very negative implications in our communities because of it. And
so I think right this, right now, this has been planned,
I think since mister Bellafonte has always talked about this,

(39:32):
and for me, it's exciting to see that it's now happening.
And so I think it's an opportunity for us to
also share a stage with artists and also build relationship
with artists who can use their platform to amplify the
work that we're doing on the ground.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Carlos is also another to mention to this, why now,
why at this particular moment, right because here and now
we've ever had issues clearly and shopping drawn as they
are today. We never had a black president before that
had a backlash. We never had a president that has

(40:09):
had the clash that Barack Obama has had. I mean
race who rushed into the room to declare itself alive
and present and angry at the idea that there's a
black man daring to speak for America in the halls
of justice and in the hall of solution. Globally, white

(40:29):
people woke up, folks.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
This is a statement that was released from the office
of Vice President Kamala Harris, who also knew Hairbelvonte Well
hair Be Lavante was one of our nation's most powerful
voices for change. As an activist, hair Belafonte helped lead
the fight for civil rights and human rights and across
the world, inspired and inspite a generation of young leaders

(40:55):
to fight for change. He used his voice and resources
to champion the cause of racial justice, speaking out for
freedom alongside doctor Martin M. King Junior, and supporting organizations
like the Student Non Violent Coordating Committee and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference. On stage, in screen, and on screen,
the King of Clipso captivated audiences around the globe. Like
all true patriots, harrybe Lafonte had the ability to see

(41:17):
what could be and had the courage to work to
realize that vision. He fought to help America live up
to our highest ideals dignity, equity, and justice for all.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
For years.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
It was my honor to call Harry a dear friend
and rely on his wisdom and counsel. America has lost
a giant. Today, Doug and I are praying for his
family and loved ones. One of the things that I
think is important to hear Greg Carr, for people to understand,
is that Harrib Belafonte was not one who was afraid

(41:51):
to challenge America, to challenge political leaders. He was extremely
vocal against President George H.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
George W. Bush when it came to war, and he challenged.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Black leadership to also do more for African Americans, for
the African diaspora.

Speaker 10 (42:17):
He absolutely did.

Speaker 13 (42:18):
You mentioned in the opening as you opened, you mentioned Venezuela,
for example, Harry Belafonte, our brother, Danny Glover and others
went and met had a long meeting, was around five
or six hours at one session with Hugo Chavez, who
is a hero to a number of people around the world,
and who was of course widely excoriated by white nationalists

(42:41):
and others who don't know much about international politics here
in the United States. And mister Bellafonte at the time,
in kind of pushing back against the Bush administration, said,
you know, Bush is a terrorist and it should be
locked up. In fact, if you remember, and of course
you do, and you know, back in two thousand and six.
Belafonte said, after criticizing George Bush, he was disinvited from

(43:04):
delivering the eulogy at Curtis Scott King's funeral. This is
the same credit Scott King, of course, and of course
her children and Martin King's children talk about the fact
that mister B and Sidney Poitier and so many others
raised money as they did for the widow of Malcolm X,
Betty Shabbaz and her children to help put a financial
floor under them. Of course, mister B took out very
quietly insurance on doctor King in the case of any

(43:28):
tragic events, and you know, he put the financial floor
into them. But he was disinvited from giving the eulogy
because he criticized George Bush. He was never afraid to
hold his tongue. When John Kennedy was running for president
eventually won the Democratic nomination in nineteen sixty, he basically
begged to meet with mister Bellafonte, and when he finally
got a meeting, he said, you know, how could Jackie

(43:49):
Robinson endorse Nixon. Belafonte's first question was, well, you know,
what is your relationship to black communities? You don't know
black folks, and then When Kennedy said, well, you endorse me,
Lafante said, you know, I'm no celebrity shouldn't be endorsed.
He said, do you know anything about Martin Luther King?
And when John Kennedy said, well, I really don't, he said,
you need to talk to doctor King. Then he called
Martin King and said, listen, man, you need to talk

(44:11):
to John Kennedy. This is the background kind of stuff
that puts the floor under the things that ultimately your results.
When we see the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four,
you're going to see Harry Belafonte's fingerprints on it if
you look behind the scenes. And of course, finally, and
I'm sure that you know you'll explore this a little
bit later on as you talk. But having brother Rashid here,
our friend Brother Rashid, and brother Angelo, you know they

(44:34):
have I'm sure, been in rooms where this question of
the relationship of celebrity and struggle have been chewed out,
and probably there have been some moments where their agreements
to disagree and who can forget. In twenty twelve, when
Harry Belafonte said this generation is not doing enough and
called out Jay Z and Beyonce and jay Z pushed back.

Speaker 10 (44:56):
Harry Bonta felt about it.

Speaker 13 (44:57):
I'm not backing down, and you know, I wonder about
that when I see jay Z sitting with Big in
their NFL owners and I wonder, is that just a
contemporary version of what Hairbelafonte would do?

Speaker 10 (45:06):
Or have you gone off the rails?

Speaker 13 (45:08):
Brother?

Speaker 2 (45:08):
And right or on.

Speaker 13 (45:09):
Mister B was gonna tell you what he thought about it.
And it wasn't just from the sidelines. He was in
the middle of the bloody struggle. As Paul Robeson and
others would say, there is no sheltered rear. And he
reminded every generation of that, whether they were president's congress
people or entertainers.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
I got to go to a break we come back.
I'm gonna go to Angelo and Rishard.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
I want to talk about that because mister B and
I we did talk about his criticism of jay Z
and others, and you're absolutely right. He was very clear
as to where he stood. I'll share that when we
come back from this break. Folks, you're watching a special
tribute to the life and legacy of Harribelafonte right here

(45:51):
on Rollard Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network.

Speaker 13 (46:43):
Next on the Black Table with me Greg called we
look at the history of emancipation around the world, including
right here in the United States, the so called end
of slavery. Trust me, it's a history lesson that there
is no resemblance to what you learned in school. Professor
Chris Japara, author, scholar, amazing Teacher, joins us to talk

(47:04):
about his latest book, Black Ghost of Empire, The Death
of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation. He explains why
the end of slavery was no end at all, but
instead a collection of laws and policies designed to preserve
the status quo of racial oppression.

Speaker 24 (47:21):
The real problem is that the problems that slavery and
invented have continued over time, and what reparations are really
about is saying, how do we really transform society right
and stop racial violence which is so endemic, what we.

Speaker 13 (47:38):
Need to do about it. On the next installment of
the Black Table, right here on the Black Star, Hi.

Speaker 9 (47:47):
Am Foster, Jackie hit Martin, and I have a question
for you.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
Never feel as if your life is teetering and weight
and pressure the world is consistently on your shoulders.

Speaker 9 (47:55):
Let me tell you living a balance life isn't easy.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Joining each day on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with
Doctor Jackie will laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together,
and cheer each other on. So join me for new
shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network, A Balance Life with
Doctor Jackey.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Hair Belafonte ninety five years of an amazing life.

Speaker 7 (48:25):
You know, he is, he's such a gift.

Speaker 25 (48:28):
We thought he's a gift because he looked so fine
and he's.

Speaker 6 (48:34):
Saying so beautifully.

Speaker 25 (48:36):
He made us feel light and happy. He made us
feel romantic. He's made us feel deep, you know, when
it touches your heart as an entertainer, but he's changed
their lives as a man.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
He's always shown up for the people, for all people.

Speaker 25 (48:57):
He's shown us that we have a voice, and that
every not only every boy's, every boat, every step, every
hand reaching out to touch another hand.

Speaker 6 (49:08):
That shares have shared concerns. That that's power.

Speaker 25 (49:12):
So he is He's given people around the world agency,
And you know, if that's not something to celebrate, nothing is.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Uh Rashad is interesting. So Greg brought up that.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Contentious, little deep squabble that was there between uh mister
B and jay Z, and so is what was interesting
because so oftentimes, uh, mister b would we were talking,
he would.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
He would say, why are you coming to see me?
And I would be like, all right, just let me
know when I'll hop on the train.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
To come to New York. So I go to New
York and uh, we're in his office. We meet, and
then we later go out to dinner. And so we
were sitting in his office and I remember, uh, you know,
bringing up the whole jay Z uh, and he.

Speaker 7 (50:43):
Goes, Fuck, jay Z, I don't have time for this shit.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
I got real interesting focused on and I cracked up laughing.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
And then of course later I remember jay Z of course, uh,
and he told me what happened, and he said he
was somewhere and someone asked him a question as a
news conference, and so he answered the question. He said, look,
you ask me a question, and I answer the question.
Jay Z of course later makes reference to that in
one of his songs. They later reconcile, they actually sit down,
they talk. They visited numerous occasions, because I remember it

(51:15):
was a comic Jayzy he made about his presence was charity,
and that rubble a lot of people the wrong way.
But it was one of those things where Bates actually
sat down and talked and communicated.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
And that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Harry Belafonte was someone who had no problem picking the
phone up and saying, let's talk about these things, about
these issues, and that was.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Something that I think was critically important.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
So everybody, of course, people love talking about the beef,
but they don't want to talk about really the conversations
and the learning and the educating and the dialogue that
happened after that issue.

Speaker 14 (51:55):
You know, Roland, Actually that is such an important point,
and I think that that, in some ways is so
much kind of undergirds how I think about mister b
because he had so much standing because he was constantly
doing the work, and he was doing the work when
there were no cameras, when there were no reporters, when

(52:17):
there was no publicity. He was constantly doing the work.

Speaker 10 (52:21):
It is actually so.

Speaker 15 (52:24):
Kind of appropriate, eerie.

Speaker 14 (52:26):
Just yesterday I was in DC doing a meeting at
the Department of Transportation with the Secretary of Transportation about
traffic stops and the role of the role of police
and traffic stops and public safety and the history of
driving while black, and there's you know, a number of

(52:47):
stories if you read mister B's.

Speaker 7 (52:50):
Memoir or any of his stories.

Speaker 14 (52:51):
He talks about going to the South and with mister
Poitier and talks about the sort of driving while black
in those places, being a black person in the car
with white folks. But actually it was interesting because I
was there with Ambassador Patrick Gaspard, who was the former
ambassador US Ambassador to South Africa, and mister B just

(53:14):
always comes up in conversation because he was always there,
and Patrick had a really great relationship with mister B
as well, and Patrick and I were just randomly talking
about this building that I used to live in up
on one hundred and sixth Street in New York, this
old building that had been organized, and I said, I
heard through the grape vind Patrick that you organized that

(53:34):
building when you were a young tenant organizer before you
went into labor unions, and he said, yeah, I did.
I said, you know, I rented from this older black
woman who had gotten that building when the when the
tenants got to take it over, and she only wanted
to rent to black folks. So when I moved up
there and she saw me and she was like, I
will rent this building to you. And I didn't quite

(53:54):
you know, have the credit at that time to live
in that neighborhood. And so I talked about that building.
He said, you know how I organized that building and
I said, I said no, And he said, all of
that work was funded by mister Belafonte, was funded by
Harry and I said, I was.

Speaker 6 (54:13):
Like, yeah, of course that makes sense.

Speaker 14 (54:14):
He said he would give us money to do all
sorts of organizing up there in you know, up in Harlem,
up in up in Morningside, up you know that whole
Upper West Side area where black immigrant Haitian immigrants, black Americans,
folks from Jamaica and the Caribbean and other parts of

(54:35):
the Caribbean were all living, and people were trying to
own those buildings or trying to fight back against sort
of harsh treatment from tenant organizers.

Speaker 7 (54:45):
So he just constantly showed up.

Speaker 14 (54:48):
And so the story about sort of that he had
standing to critique the artist of today, but then he
was going to do the work behind the scenes to
engage them to be in conversation, because he was constantly
doing the work, not seeking the publicity, but understood the
platform that he had, understood the role that he in

(55:10):
his presence could provide. But for mister b was always
about building power and I have learned so much by
watching him. I'm so inspired by him, but also so
inspired by what it means to do the work when
no one's watching.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
When you talk about that.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Not being afraid to criticize Angelo he was on Democracy
Now of Amy Goodman, and this is what he said
about President Barack Obama. He said, I think Obama plays
the game that he plays because he sees no threat
from evidencing concerns for the poor. He sees no threat
from evidencing a deeper concern for the needs of black people.

(55:52):
As such, he feels no great threat from evidencing a
greater policy towards the international community. For expressing thoughts that
criticize the American position on things and turns and around.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Until we do that, I.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Think we will forever be disappointed in what that administration
will deliver. In his book, he talked about his mother
being poor and talking about just what it did to her.
And this was a man who was financially successful, often
with vacation in.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Southern France, the French Riviera.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
But he was always advocated in fighting on behalf of
the poor and was not afraid to call anybody out,
including the nation's first black president.

Speaker 16 (56:38):
I mean, I think mister Bela Foncee was genius in
that and I think just down to earth and that
he understood what most black folks were thinking or feeling.
And I think the sentiments to President Barack Obama were
shared by many of us. His presidency, I think, for
most now mostly symbolic and lacked some of the substance

(57:01):
that we would have liked to see. And to Professor
Carr's point, in many ways, Obama was kind of a
super inside man and most of his efforts in his
work didn't necessarily translate to the outside realities of black folks.

Speaker 10 (57:15):
But I think his election.

Speaker 16 (57:18):
I remember being in New York City the night that
he won, and literally hundreds and thousands of people just
took to the street because I think his presence and
the symbolic victory met so much, and we hoped that
the substance would follow, but unfortunately it didn't. And I
think oftentimes, even when you look at other critiques that

(57:39):
mister b has of celebrities, the hope is always that
the substance follows, and that's not always the case, but
I think sometimes it is. I think, you know, I
certainly have my critiques of celebrities and their role in
creating social change and if they do so, and what
they're willing to do at their own expense.

Speaker 10 (57:59):
But one thing that I certainly saw a shift with
respect to jay Z was.

Speaker 16 (58:04):
Him using his voice and art to tell the stories
of individuals like Khalif Browner with the Time documentary and
his role in freeing Meek Mill and putting the documentary
out about the injustice around the criminal justice system. And
I think mister B did push folks in the direction
of change. He pushed folks in the direction of paying

(58:26):
attention to their voice and how to use their voice
to create change and create power. And I think that's
the sentiment that I remember most and I try to
lead with because I think there's moments for me, certainly
where I want to say, you know, f certain celebrities
and they're not going to live up to what we

(58:47):
need them to be. But I think mister B also
created the space for grace, and he created the space
to invite people in with the hope. And I think
what they're urging that they will do better and they're
better will also contribute to our collective efforts for you know,
transformation and libration.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Indeed, Angelo Rashaw, we'll surely appreciate both of you joining
us today sharing your thoughts and reflections about hair Belafonte.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Thanks a bunch, folks. Gotta go to a break. Great car.
You stay right there, folks, got to go to break,
We come back.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
We're here from Carmen Perez, one of the young act
female activists who hair Belafonte personally embraced, recruited, and mentored.
We'll also hear from Moreal's CEO of the National Urban League,
Spike Lee, sent us a video tribute to about hair Belafonte.
Great Car reference. That issue with hair Belafonte being invited

(59:43):
to speak of the funeral of Credit Scott King and
then having it rescinded will show you the moment when
he reconciled with m Ok the third on that very issue.
Lots more for us to share as we pay our
respects to an amazing man, the great had Belafonte, who
passed away today at the age of ninety six. You're

(01:00:04):
watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstar Network.

Speaker 26 (01:00:55):
The next Get Wealthy with Me, Deborah Owens, America's well coach.
Dexter Jenkins is a faith based financial mentor with more
than twenty years in the financial services industry. He's passionate
about helping families build generational wealth.

Speaker 27 (01:01:13):
Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking
about things about being the word, I'm talking about things
like fellowship. I'm talking to members who are dealing with
losing their houses, or I'm talking to members who, because
of a lack of the handle their finances and they're
working two or three jobs, and so what I'm finding
is that they're not coming to church because they don't
have a handle on their finances.

Speaker 26 (01:01:34):
We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our
finances on the next Get Wealthy right here, only on
Blackstar Network.

Speaker 28 (01:01:50):
We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it
or not, from politics, from music and entertainment. It's a
huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk
about it every day right here on the Culture with
me Baraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network.

Speaker 7 (01:02:13):
Thanks guess out here.

Speaker 12 (01:02:15):
Of course, y'all have heard their voices, their amazing voices,
voices of the movement. They still doing their thing, sweete
honey in the rock. Glad to see y'all. How's it going,
How good to see you? Absolutely be here. Absolutely, so
let's let's talk about out here celebrating the hair Belafontin, Well,
this is exciting.

Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
Ninety five years old, my mother's ninety eight. I think
it's just such a blessing in the one that I
have our seniors with us.

Speaker 29 (01:02:41):
And you know, and they broke so much ground for us,
you know, and then they still be stronger than their mind.

Speaker 6 (01:02:47):
God bless them.

Speaker 7 (01:02:48):
I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 6 (01:02:49):
We're gonna sing for tonight.

Speaker 12 (01:02:50):
And of course y'all were out there when he was
out there as well, doing the Black Freedom movement, putting
it on the line.

Speaker 30 (01:02:57):
Yes, well, you know it's honey, having a rock is
how to you have a long legacy of singing for
social justice, singing for people's I would say, experiences in
this American way of life, and so we are just
really happy to be able to keep it going. We're
approaching fifty years. Next year we will have our fiftieth anniversary.
We're still on the battlefield.

Speaker 7 (01:03:18):
So what is your favorite hair Bellefonte moment memory?

Speaker 6 (01:03:24):
Ooh, what you got? What you got?

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Barbara?

Speaker 7 (01:03:27):
When we did the event in Georgia. When we did
the event in Georgia a.

Speaker 6 (01:03:32):
Few years ago, and it was a huge crowd of people.

Speaker 7 (01:03:35):
It was very exciting, and it was almost all night event.

Speaker 6 (01:03:40):
Right right, right right.

Speaker 30 (01:03:41):
It was the sanco Fa Music Festival. And mister B sang. Yes,
he said, I have not sung in ten years. I'm
singing for y'all to night, and yes he did. I
got it on my camera and we also sat down
with a lot of young people and they asked me
questions about his experiences.

Speaker 6 (01:04:02):
It's wonderful. Yeah, absolutely, Oh let me tell you mine.
Backstage at Alvin Aileen and I walked up to mister B.
I said, when Dali you go into eternal man jumping
at how he's beginning to burn. He said, how do
you know that song?

Speaker 26 (01:04:15):
I said, my parents used to play that when we
were little, and they and the company would all be
in the living room singing Harry Belafonte's songs.

Speaker 6 (01:04:23):
I love mister B. We call him Harry bella fine te.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
In our Blackstart Network studios, we have placed a black
sash over that portrait of Airbe Lafonte was seven eight
years ago.

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
Believe.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
I was asked to MC a fundraiser at the Pollo
Theater for one of mister B's organizations. I was happy
to do so. The artists who did that piece. That
piece was there up for the auction. I should have
got it that night. But when we when we built
our studios, I wanted to honor him, and so I

(01:05:50):
commissioned that portrait that hangs the centerpiece at right there
between out of the wells Barnett and James Baldwin.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
Uh. And I remember when we unveiled.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
Our studio, I actually called him UH that night, got
a chance to speak to him briefly.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
We were live on the air. And what I did
not know was that Sidney Poitier had actually passed that night. Uh.
And that was actually the last time I believe I
talked to mister B.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
I was in Jamaica for the holidays, and I was
on a bus headed to the resort, and there was
a song that came across the radio.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
We were there in Jamaica.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
UH, And I said, man, I recognized that voice, and
so I recorded a short video h and sent it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
To him and to his daughter Gina.

Speaker 13 (01:06:44):
UH.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
And his wife Pam sent me an email telling thanking
me for thinking of him and them and senate that video.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Uh, and so he was again.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
He was the one who built relationships with so many
different people, folks in media, in the arts, in politics,
and civil rights, you name it. When I talked about
that particular gathering, that fundraiser, my next guest was one
of the folks who asked me to do it. Carmen Perez,
she joins us right now. She is someone who Hairbella

(01:07:17):
Fonte took under his wings, met her and said, young lady,
you and I are going to become a good friends.
She's the executive director of the Gathering for Justice out
of New York. Carmen, glad to see you. Hate to
check under these circumstances for folks who don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Just share with them how you and Harab Bellafonte got connected.

Speaker 20 (01:07:48):
Well, thank you for having me on Romand to talk
about my dear mentor. I met mister Bellafonte about twenty
two years ago through my mentor Nane Alejandres from Barrio
sign Those Santa Cruz, and I was just a young
woman committed to working with young people that were incarcerated
and also men that were locked up in Tracy prison.

(01:08:09):
I was running the Prison Project and running program in
the detention center and creating alternatives to incarceration, and mister
Bellafonte would attend meetings at Barrio Sonilos. And there was
a moment in which we had gone to Los Angeles
to meet with father Greg Boyle from Homeboy Industries to
talk about a Homeboy coffee. And I was there with

(01:08:30):
mister b and Danny Glover and my mentor Nane. We
had driven all night, nana in myself to be in
La to meet who we call Uncle Danny and mister Bellafonte,
and I was just there as a fly on the wall.
And after that, when mister Bellafonte had founded the Gathering
for Justice and had called his peers from the civil

(01:08:51):
rights movement, people like you know Marion Wright Edelman and
Ruby D. Nane, some of our indigenous elder he called
them to look at child incarceration as an im moral imperative.
And again, seeing that I had done work in Santa Cruz,
when I was brought to EP's Alabama for the Youth
and Alders convenient, he took a liking to me and

(01:09:15):
would consiensantly ask me to leave Santa Cruz to come
to New York and work for him. And at the moment,
I didn't realize who Harry Belafonte was. I was, you know,
a twenty six year old, twenty eight year old young woman.
I was actually the same age that he was when
he met Doctor King. I believe mister b was twenty
eight and doctor King was twenty six. And so I

(01:09:37):
after a while, a lot of my mentors had said,
you know, working for Harry Belafonte is once in a
lifetime opportunity and you should really take that on. And again,
twenty years ago, that wasn't my path. I was committed
to staying in Santa Cruz. I loved my life. I
loved working with girls, I loved working with the people

(01:09:59):
that I was serving inside the prison and the detention centers,
and so I didn't really see myself in New York.
But I then accepted his clarion call and I started
working for him. And in twenty ten he invited me
to be the executive director of the organization. And so
I've been working at his feet, I would say, and

(01:10:22):
by his side. I moved to New York City during
that time to work closely with him and started building
a young workers program for eleven ninety nine building the
gathering for Justice and Justice League n YC in New York.
But it's been a journey. I made a commitment to
my mentor, Nane, who, like I said, is mister B's mentee.

(01:10:44):
They're about twenty years apart, so I'm assuming mister Nana
is now in his sixties or seventies, and he had said,
you know, I want you to serve mister Bellafonte for
the rest of his life. And here we are at
the end of his life, and it's been.

Speaker 31 (01:11:10):
It's been heartbreaking, and you know, my heart feels shattered.
But I'm grateful to have sat with the big giant,
to have shared stories. I still remember the time in
which you were in our office and we were doing
a recording and I couldn't really get a word in
with mister B.

Speaker 20 (01:11:30):
He's such a genius. But there are many many great
moments with him, and I'm always going to cherish those,
and I think really my role in the organization was
to bring him to young people and to connect him
to the young leaders of our time. And I'm just
grateful that you were able to talk to Angelo who
was part of Justice League and now until freedom and

(01:11:52):
Rashad Robinson, who was part of the original Gathering for
Justice almost eighteen years ago and so been an honor.
But today has been a very difficult day for me
and many of us that are mourning him, and not
just us that worked for him or who have been
mentored by him, but the world. He really touched the world.

(01:12:13):
He left his print and and we're going to carry
that legacy on and forward.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Mark Moray Presidency of the National Urban League. Was interesting
is that Harry Belafonte organized a meeting of the elders
in Atlanta, UH And if people watch the documentary UH
without realize that he says in the documentary that while
it was happening, he realized, ain't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Nothing happening in this room.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
He said, if I am going to have an impact,
I need to reach young people like Carmen uh. And
so I found that was that was so fascinating that
he that he said, He's like here, I was, I
organize this, and then I realized it was a lot
of old folks in the room who had done great things,
he said, but they had more years behind them and

(01:13:08):
in front of him. And so he understood that I
need to be there on the ground in the streets,
talking to the next generation of leaders. And he actually
did that at his age, went out to find out
where they were, folks like Carmen.

Speaker 32 (01:13:26):
It made thanks Roland, thanks for having me. It's what
made him unique, It's what made him who he was.
He supported, he danced to the tune of his own drummer,
but his conviction and his sensibilities around civil rights and
social justice were cut in the nineteen fifties and sixties

(01:13:50):
when young people in fact drove the movement, Doctor King,
John Lewis, Whitney, Young Malcolm X. They were young people
people so many others, college students and others who sat
in the freedom rides, they were young people. And I
think when he sat in that room and said, you

(01:14:10):
know what, I've got to impact people who were like
we were when.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Transformation and change took place.

Speaker 32 (01:14:17):
I don't think it's hard for us to understand by
placing ourselves in the times of the nineteen fifties and
the nineteen sixties, how much of a risk he and
Sidney Portier and others took.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
They were not just entertainers. They were not just they
were top rated entertainers.

Speaker 32 (01:14:42):
It was hary Belafonte, who in nineteen fifty six with
Calypso sold more records for an individual artist at that
time than anyone in history. It was Harry Belafonte who
won an Emmy, who appeared in movies before he was
at the March on Washington, Sidney Academy Award winning a

(01:15:02):
well known actor. They were at the top of their game.
Yet their conviction drove them to support civil rights. We
can't even fathom the challenges. And they never talked about
the criticism they received. They never talked about the blowback
he faced, and it certainly was considerable.

Speaker 31 (01:15:24):
So he.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Rolling.

Speaker 32 (01:15:27):
I had an opportunity to interview him for CBS Sunday Morning.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
About five years ago on the occasion of.

Speaker 32 (01:15:36):
Doctor King's the fiftieth year since Doctor King's assassination in Memphis,
and he was as powerful and as alert and as
outspoken and as authentic as he always was.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
Indeed, Morriel, you're there on the road. We appreciate you
stopping by. Always reflections with regards to Hairbelafonte, appreciate it.
Thanks about com pres Hod tight one second, I gotta
go to break.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
We come back. We will have more.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
We'll also talk to Bernard Lafayette, who was one of
the folks involved on the ground and it is doing
a Black freedom move it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
He'll join us.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
We'll also hear from Spike Lee, Window Pierce and many others.
With your guards to Airbella Fonte, who passed away today
at the age of ninety six. You're watching Roland Martin
unfiltered on a Black Shid network.

Speaker 13 (01:17:26):
On the Black Table with me Greg called we look
at the history of emancipation around the world, including right
here in the United States, the so called end of slavery.
Trust me, it's a history lesson that bears no resemblance
to what you learned in school. Professor Chris Manjapra, author, scholar,
amazing teacher, joins us to talk about his latest book,

(01:17:48):
Black Ghost of Empire, The Death of Slavery and the
Failure of Emancipation. He explains why the end of slavery
was no end at all, but instead a collection of
laws and policies designed to preserve the status quo of
racial appreation.

Speaker 24 (01:18:03):
The real problem is that the problems that slavery and
invented have continued over time, and what reparations are really
about is saying, how do we really transform society right
and stop racial violence which is so endemic.

Speaker 13 (01:18:20):
What we need to do about it. On the next
installment of the Black Table, right here.

Speaker 10 (01:18:25):
On the Black Star.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
On a next a Balance Life with Me, Doctor Jackie,
we talked about a hard core fact that all healthcare
is created equal in this country, especially if you're a
person of color.

Speaker 22 (01:18:40):
So many of us black failures. We rely upon each
other heavily. A lot of us aren't necessarily sure how
to best communicate with.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
Our healthcare providers, how to take charge and balance the
skills your life may depend on it. That's next on
a Balance Line on Blackstar Network.

Speaker 33 (01:19:02):
Mister b ninety five years so he says, he says
he's ninety five.

Speaker 7 (01:19:09):
I don't know, because he act't more like he's sixty five. Well,
he's twenty two, as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 12 (01:19:14):
You know, Well, it's important for you to come out
of here, is to show your love for him, because
he would have killed me if I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
And of course is a great comedian as well, and
so glad to see her out here celebrating and fitting
mister Belafonte. And if we can get her real quick, yeah, yeah,
if we get a real quick just if we can
get just real quick, let's see India.

Speaker 33 (01:19:44):
This y'all can here we go? Hey, queen, come on,
come on now, come on you look at it? Come
on you looking great as well?

Speaker 12 (01:19:57):
Come on now my summer dress, because I can't for
it than anything else.

Speaker 7 (01:20:01):
Come on, come on, my fellow as corfio.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
How you doing?

Speaker 7 (01:20:04):
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
Mister b ninety five.

Speaker 6 (01:20:07):
Years so he says.

Speaker 7 (01:20:11):
He says he's ninety five. I don't know, because he
act more like he's sixty five. Well he's twenty two,
as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 12 (01:20:17):
You know, well, it's important for you to come out
of here, is to show your love for him, because.

Speaker 6 (01:20:22):
He would have killed me if I didn't.

Speaker 7 (01:20:24):
You know, I love Harry.

Speaker 29 (01:20:25):
You know I'm not I don't like to be out
in public a lot, and so you know, ninety five
is a is a big deal. You know, a lot
of people don't make it. But Harry's here, and I
want to make sure that I put my little voice
and saying, you know, thank god you're still here, and
thank God for all the stuff that you did, because

(01:20:46):
you taught us, those of us who could do it,
how to do it.

Speaker 12 (01:20:52):
You know, I always love sitting at his feet listening
to him, talking with him, but these are interesting.

Speaker 7 (01:20:58):
He wants to hear from you. I'm like, no, I
mean I want to hear from you. He's like, no,
I want you to talk.

Speaker 29 (01:21:02):
But that's what keeps him going because it stimulates a
conversation that he may not be having with other people.
So it's a joy when he wants to talk to
because what he doesn't want to talk to you, it's
very clear.

Speaker 7 (01:21:14):
Yet, Yeah, that's very true.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
A lot of folks have been sharing their.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
Remarks with regards to the past and har Belafonte. We
reached out to my band Spike Lee, and he sent
us this video.

Speaker 34 (01:22:14):
Hearing my feelings about the late great Harry Belafonte. Mister
B as we called him, is a definition of what
artists can also be. Civil rights leaders too, will use

(01:22:37):
their fame, their God give it talents to move people forward,
specifically African Americans.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
But you might see everybody.

Speaker 34 (01:22:51):
He was there with Doctor King, him and Sydney Sidney
Forte another great where you know, keeping that cash going
to doctor King and the keep fighting the movement, the movement,
the movement, and my father is a billy was still

(01:23:12):
alive a folk bases and he worked with some occasions
work with.

Speaker 6 (01:23:19):
Mister B.

Speaker 12 (01:23:20):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
Once I became a.

Speaker 34 (01:23:23):
Filmmaker, you know, we was te each other now and then,
and he'd always say, Spike, can't you let me be
in a film one time? You keep giving those roles
of Ozzie Davis.

Speaker 10 (01:23:38):
And you know Ozzi.

Speaker 34 (01:23:41):
It was tight with Sydney and mister B and finally
Black Clansmen we got to work together.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
Was one day.

Speaker 34 (01:23:54):
It was a pivotal scene in that film. And the
day before I told the crew you have to come
dressed and your Sunday best. They said why, I said, don't.

Speaker 10 (01:24:08):
I don't care.

Speaker 12 (01:24:09):
I'm not.

Speaker 34 (01:24:10):
I have to tell you why, just coming here Sunday best.
So were mister B showed up on set, mister Harry Belafonte.
People lost their minds. The legend was there and that
feeling he brought to this set, and that scene is

(01:24:32):
one of the most memorable scenes I've done, and more
for my fort and more than my four decades of
a filmmaker, that's right up there with the stuff, and then.

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
With Denzel and.

Speaker 34 (01:24:44):
And the end of Malcolm X with the great Nelson
Mandela you could feel the energy and mister Bellafonte was
channeling all those all those trialsipilations he went through with
the civil rights movement doing that scene. So a great,

(01:25:06):
great loss.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
And rolling.

Speaker 34 (01:25:09):
It seems like every day, left and right, we're losing.

Speaker 10 (01:25:17):
Our giants.

Speaker 34 (01:25:19):
I mean like every day at least it seems to
me we're losing somebody. And I posted this on my Instagram.
We gotta get love to our giants who's still here.
Let's let them know they're loved, not just funerals, not
just funerals at their homecoming when they make the transition.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Let's let our giants, our.

Speaker 34 (01:25:44):
King, our queens, Let's put the queen's first, our queens
and kings. Let them know how much we love them
and appreciate them while they are still with this in
their physical form.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Peace of love is Spike Roland. Yes from Brooklyn, New York.
We appreciate that Spike.

Speaker 6 (01:26:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
Carmen Perez was Spike there. What he said was absolutely right.
And I can tell you anytime I was I was
somewhere and mister b was in a room.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
I would always make my way. He always would have Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
We would always joke and laugh nobody had a laugh
like his. I remember you, I think you and Tamika
were with him and he was doing, uh, he wants
to do media for the festival that took place in
the Atlanta area.

Speaker 20 (01:26:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
And so he called, so y'all call me?

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
And first he calls and uh, no caller, I d
uh and uh, I I answered, I like, uh, hello,
Rollard Martin here, how you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
Let us to be how you're doing? How do you
know it's me?

Speaker 7 (01:27:02):
I said, ain't nobody talk like you?

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
I said, you the only one got that voice. And
then he lets out this huge, huge laugh.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
And so he was always uh, he was always doing that.
So it was a serious person who also was very
funny as well. But the thing again that that that's
important when our elders like him are in the room,
make your way over in pay respects.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
What was it like for you to be there, to
sit at his feet? Uh, to learn to listen and
uh to follow.

Speaker 20 (01:27:39):
I have to say that there were moments in which
mister b would crack jokes and say things that you know,
would raise an eyebrow, But there was a lesson in it.
There was always a lesson in everything that he shared.
I think about even with the gathering of the elders
right and him bringing his peers together. I mean there

(01:28:02):
was a lesson there. There is always something to be told,
to be shared. There is a moment in which mister Bellafonte.
I had convened Justice League to meet with mister Bellafonte,
and he had shared with us. And I know our
young people consistently references. He said in the final analysis,
each generation must be responsible for itself. So all I

(01:28:26):
can do is leave behind the crumbs of my experience.
I have a trail that you can follow. If you
find value in it, pick it up. And if you
don't bring something better, there sits your power. What's going
to happen is how you make it happen. And I
will say that, you know, there were moments when I
would ask mister Bellafonte a question and he would give

(01:28:49):
me a whole historical analysis starting or dating back to
his time with doctor King, his time with Eleanor Rose,
about with Russell means, when we were organizing the Women's
on Washington, he met with us and I brought all
the women that were organizing to him. He said, keep
the message simple. When the movement, when the music is strong,

(01:29:11):
the movement is strong, and so we knew that we
needed to incorporate music and everything that we did. His
mentor Paul Robeson, always talked about artists are the gatekeepers
of truth, their civilization's radical voice, and so we embodied
that in the work that we do at the Gathering
for Justice and everything that we did to support other movements.
And to sit at his feet is something that I'm

(01:29:34):
going to miss. I've been mourning him ever since the pandemic,
and I will take all the lessons that he shared
with me and share them with the next generation. It
is my responsibility, it is the responsibility of so many
of us. I know that at ninety six years old,
mister Belafonte, and you know everybody affectionately calls him mister

(01:29:58):
b almost one hundred years he looked up and felt
that he had ten minutes left of his life. And
as he looked back at his life, the question for
him that he was asking is himself, was that time wasted?
And we all know that it wasn't. And it's now
our responsibility, those of us who he mentored, who he

(01:30:20):
passed the Batontu, to continue his legacy and the work
that he started, and we have to really reach down
within ourselves and ask ourselves, are what where is our
moral compass? You know, there was still a lot of
work to do, and it's the reason why he lived
so long. It's the reason why he kept on working,
even though he would say to me, Carmen, I'm stepping away,

(01:30:43):
you know, like we're gonna have to find someone else.
But he kept counseling me. He kept counseling my generation
and people that came before me. You know, I connected
today with many of the people that were part of
the original gathering for Justice twenty years ago. Carrie Jekends,
I know, Dowanna Thompson from Woke Vote. You see the

(01:31:04):
fruits of his labor within many of us who he
actually invested in. We're out here doing the work that
he paved the way for him and his peers. A
lot of the programming that we do. You know, he
would talk to me about moments when he sat with
his peers and you know, they read books, they had
critical conversations, they drank a little, and so we've created

(01:31:28):
some of those same programs. But to sit at his
feet is an honor. I will say when I was younger.
There was nothing that I could reference to some of
the information that he was sharing with me. When twenty
years ago he sat me in his office and he
talked about coin tel pro, I didn't realize that, you know,
fifteen years later I would still be I would experience
the same thing. And so there was moments when he

(01:31:51):
shared all these gems with me, this knowledge. I'm grateful
for the stories he talked about with you know, you
were talking about Barack Obama earlier and his criticism of
Barack Obama. But I also know that Eleanor Roosevelt and
him and mister Belafonte commissioned a plane that had a

(01:32:12):
Barock senior on it, a young Barack who came from
Kenya to study here in the United States. And so,
you know, just knowing how all of this history is interconnected,
and he had a part in all of it, not
just with the Civil rights movement, but the American Indian Movement,
the Chicano movement. He was a bridge builder, and that's
what I know I'm going to continue to do. I'm

(01:32:33):
going to bring people together. It is my responsibility. And
I don't take for granted the time that he's invested.

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
In me, Carma Perez.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Glad to have you with us, sharing your thoughts and
reflections about the great hair of Lafonte.

Speaker 2 (01:32:49):
Thanks a lot, Thank you. Going to break, we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
We'll talk with Snick, an SEOC leader, But Aur Lafayette,
Chuck d Great are still with us. UH and I
promise to show you the video of har Belafonte being
honored the Natural Action Network where he reconciled with MLK
the third after being invited then disinvited to speak at

(01:33:16):
the funeral of Coretta Scott King. I will explain you're
watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstar.

Speaker 17 (01:33:22):
Network Hatred on the Streets, a horrific scene white nationalists

(01:34:15):
rally that descended into deadly violence.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
We white people are moving their their as a angry
proach Trump Monck storm to the US capital or show.
We're about to see the rise what I call white
minority resistance.

Speaker 19 (01:34:31):
We have seen white folks in this country who simply
cannot tolerate black folks voting.

Speaker 20 (01:34:38):
I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of
violent denial.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
This is part of American history.

Speaker 18 (01:34:44):
Every time that people of color have made progress, whether
real or symbolic there has been that Carol Anderson at
every university calls white rage as a backlash.

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
This is the wrath of the proud boys and the
boogaloo boys America.

Speaker 2 (01:34:58):
There's going to be.

Speaker 21 (01:34:59):
More of the there's all the probot This country just
getting increasingly racist and its behaviors and its attitudes because
of the fear of white people.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
For fee that you're taking our job, they're taking our resources,
they're taking out women.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
This is white field.

Speaker 9 (01:35:31):
Hi am doctor Jackie Head Martin, and I have a
question for you.

Speaker 3 (01:35:34):
Ever feel as if your life is teetering into weight
and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders,
We'll let me tell you Living a balance life isn't easy.

Speaker 9 (01:35:43):
Join me each Tuesday on.

Speaker 3 (01:35:44):
Black Star Network for A Balanced Life for doctor Jackie
will laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer
each other on. So join me for new shows each
Tuesday on Black Star Network A Balanced Life where doctor Jackie.

Speaker 1 (01:36:49):
Bernald Lafayette is one of those elders who when I
when I ease him there, I'm definitely gonna go up
to him and pay my respects.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
He jones us right now.

Speaker 10 (01:36:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:36:57):
He was very much involved in SNICK, the LC, numerous
groups during the Black Freedom movement.

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
Bernard glad to have you here.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
And I'm sure you crossed paths with hair Belafonte on
many an occasion.

Speaker 35 (01:37:13):
Yes, that's true, and it made a big difference to
be with him at any time. And I want to
say that I'm very sad. I have to admit that
I am not ready for him to leave, but I

(01:37:37):
know that we all have to go at some point.
But what he left is remarkable in terms of his
contribution he made. So one of the first things I
want to say is that he is basically responsible for
getting the talented celebrities and entertainers together and support of

(01:38:06):
our movement.

Speaker 15 (01:38:07):
Had not been for him, I don't think we would
have had the kind of support from our.

Speaker 35 (01:38:15):
African American entertainers that we had. And he made a difference,
and it was like, for.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
Example, I mean, what are the African Americans. I'm sorry,
but I'm ahead.

Speaker 15 (01:38:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 35 (01:38:27):
Like for example, when we had the Summer March and
we were at Saint Jude, it was basically Harra Bellafonte
who decided that he would have the uh uh an
event called Freedom Stars and to help them at Saint Jude.
That's when we had that meeting before we marched into Montgomery, Alabama,

(01:38:53):
and he was there and made it possible. And there's
some things that people don't know that has to be shared.
For example, the stage at Saint Jude, it was made
out of you know boxes that usually you put caskets

(01:39:16):
in the funeral homes. In other words, contributed to helping
to build that stage and we were able to put
it up and right there at Saint Jude, and it
made a big difference. And I want to specifically say
that Samon Davis Junior came and many other stars. In fact,

(01:39:42):
it called the Freedom Stars. That the event that he
wanted to bring all those stars in to support the
freedom movement, and that's what he did, and they were there,
and I remember Samon Davis.

Speaker 15 (01:39:57):
Junior had another age meant and so.

Speaker 35 (01:40:04):
That meant that he was going to lose that day,
which he was already scheduled to do. But Arabella Fonte
actually paid the amount of money that Sammy Davis Junior
would have gotten had he did his performance in New York.

(01:40:27):
And then they the people who sponsored Samy Davis Junior,
decided to know they would go ahead and pay the money,
because they were very proud that Arabella Fani took the lead.

Speaker 15 (01:40:40):
And that's how he always made us feel.

Speaker 35 (01:40:43):
And actually the Freedom Singers, I mean, I can't tell
you how he supported them, and we don't have too
many of them left now. But I remember when Dion
Dykon got arrested in Louisiana and we were trying to
get him out of jail, and the bond was ten

(01:41:06):
thousand dollars cash, okay, and we as snake workers, were
students and stuff. It was very hard for us to
raise ten thousand dollars. So James Foreman was very frustrated.
And when I went to Atlanta to try to get
an assignment to go and do a voter registration project,
he said, well, we need right now is to help

(01:41:26):
get Dion out of jail. So there was a minister
out there in Detroit who wanted to have a mass meeting,
and so James Foreman, who was over Snack, told me.

Speaker 15 (01:41:42):
That he wanted me to go out there, so I did,
and I later went to Selma.

Speaker 35 (01:41:49):
But I went out there and guess what I found
that one of the people in Detroit at that time.

Speaker 15 (01:41:58):
Was dying Nashu's father.

Speaker 35 (01:42:02):
And Diane was already in jail in Jack's, Mississippi because
she sat on the wrong side of the courtroom and
they put her in jail, and she was nine months pregnant.
She came out with a statement when we were trying
to get her out of jail. We had the money
for her, and she said, any black child born in Mississippi.

Speaker 15 (01:42:28):
Is born in jail. She wouldn't come out.

Speaker 35 (01:42:32):
So I found out her father was there. He was
a dentist actually, and I sent for her and I said, Diane,
we need you to come to help get Dion Diamond
out of jail.

Speaker 15 (01:42:44):
And she did. She came and she spoke and that
was great.

Speaker 35 (01:42:50):
In the meantime, Chuck Mike Doo and Bob Zellmena had
gone to visit Dion and they had gotten arrested. They
went to visit and they said, we know it's a
conspiracy overthrow the government in Louisiana because we got all
the people there. So anyway, we had to go and
raise another twenty thousand dollars. And Harry Belafani stepped in

(01:43:15):
and that's what he invited the Freedom Singers to perform
in Chicago area Crown Theater and it was just fantastic
and he helped to make that happen. So that presented
the musicians as well as raising money to get Diane

(01:43:36):
and Chuck mcdo and Bob Zeldner out of jail. And
so Harry Belafonte has always been there for us. So
he brought the people who were in the music field
there and he made it possible for them to perform
and make things really better for us.

Speaker 15 (01:43:59):
So we felt really.

Speaker 35 (01:44:02):
Supported as young snack students because we knew we had
Harry Belafonte and he would always have our back and
he would make the difference. We didn't have to worry
about anything because he was able to bring all of
those people together and they were not just singers and entertainers,

(01:44:24):
but they were movement supporters and they were backers, and.

Speaker 15 (01:44:30):
So we were blessed.

Speaker 35 (01:44:33):
And that's one of the things that made it possible
for us to keep going because we had those kind
of people like Harry Belafante. And I relate to him
because I have some West Indian background as well.

Speaker 15 (01:44:49):
From the Bahamas, Okay. And so when he started those.

Speaker 35 (01:44:56):
Caribbean songs and that sort of thing, that really felt
right close to my heart and what I was all
about as well. I have about one hundred and twenty
relatives right there in Nasau, Bahamas.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Okay, Ba Lafayette.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
I appreciate you sharing your the stories with us. We're
going to be paying tribute to mister b over the
next week. I literally have actors and others saying, man,
I wish can I still send the video in?

Speaker 2 (01:45:31):
So we're still doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
So we appreciate you joining us, and you and I
still got to sit down for our one on one interview,
so I'm gona try to make that happen real soon.

Speaker 15 (01:45:40):
I look forward to it and I appreciate it.

Speaker 35 (01:45:43):
And I feel a kinship with Harry Belafonte, not just
somebody who you know, supported the movement. It was a
natural benship. And my wife, she was crazy about it.
Everybelliphone and we went to visit him in New York.
We've been to his house, yeah, and uh we've.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Uh well, Bernard Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:10):
I'll say, Bernard is probably a whole lot, probably a
whole lot of wives who are crazy about hair Belafonte.

Speaker 10 (01:46:19):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
I appreciate it, sir.

Speaker 35 (01:46:23):
Thank you, and we appreciate you that's the other thing
I want to say. That's why I was looking for
this opportunity. The contribution that you are making.

Speaker 15 (01:46:32):
Will be with us whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
I appreciate it. But thank you so very much.

Speaker 15 (01:46:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:46:47):
Going to a break.

Speaker 1 (01:46:48):
We'll close it out with Great car and Chuck d
You're watching Roland Marked Unfiltered on the Blackstun Network.

Speaker 13 (01:47:43):
It's on the Black Table with me Greg called. We
look at the history of emancipation around you, including right
here in the United States, the so called end of slavery.
Trust me, it's a history lesson that theres no resemblance
to what you learned in school. Professor Chris Manja, author, scholar,
amazing teacher, joins us to talk about his latest book,

(01:48:05):
Black Ghost of Empire, The Death of Slavery and the
Failure of Emancipation. He explains why the end of slavery
was no end at all, but instead a collection of
laws and policies designed to preserve the status.

Speaker 10 (01:48:18):
Quo of racial a question.

Speaker 24 (01:48:21):
The real problem is that the problems that slavery invented
have continued over time, and what reparations are really about
is saying, how do we really transform society right and
stop racial violence which is so endemic.

Speaker 13 (01:48:37):
What we need to do about it? On the next
installment of the Black Table. Right here on the Black Star.

Speaker 3 (01:48:47):
Hi am Foster, Jackie, Hit Martin, and I have a
question for you. Never feel as if your life is
teetering into weight and pressure. The world is consistently on
your shoulders. Let me tell you, living a balance life
isn't easy. Joining each Tuesday on Blackstar Networks for Balanced
Life for Dtor Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull
ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me

(01:49:09):
for new shows each Tuesday on Blackstar Network A Balanced
Life with Doctor Jackie.

Speaker 1 (01:50:07):
Folks, artists really understand the impact of hair of Bella Fonte,
what he meant not only to the arts but also
to activision. My next guest is someone who understands that.
Welcome back to the show, Chuck d Chuck.

Speaker 10 (01:50:27):
Hey, brother Rowe like the echo.

Speaker 36 (01:50:31):
Brother Bernard also said about you man, we'd like to
thank you because just the images and the beautiful pictures
mister b that that your show is showing right now.

Speaker 10 (01:50:44):
If that's not a reminder.

Speaker 36 (01:50:47):
A couple of years ago, put together by his daughter
Gina Belafonte, put together.

Speaker 10 (01:50:53):
A documentary of his life singer Song and.

Speaker 36 (01:50:57):
That so eloquently speaks about yeah, sing your song, but
singing for the people to move the people, because it
comes from the people for the people.

Speaker 10 (01:51:07):
And mister b and many conversations with him, and and
and a lot of them funny.

Speaker 36 (01:51:17):
He clearly he would he would state that like he
was an activist, he was always active before he became
an artist. That was befelling upon him, before he even
realized that he would be good at the arts or whatever.
And then when he said, the curiosity led him from
being a person that was that was trying to really

(01:51:38):
seek and find himself as as a young black male
from the Caribbean coming into New York of all places,
trying to figure out how to how to make it, you.

Speaker 10 (01:51:51):
Know, in the fifties and late forties.

Speaker 36 (01:51:55):
And then he said he stumbled upon this place after
he got to a you know, an invite from a lady,
and that's where he found his lifelong friends in the theater,
Sidney Poitier, Ruby, d Ossie Davis.

Speaker 10 (01:52:11):
And then that was it and from that point on
into music and that point on into films.

Speaker 36 (01:52:21):
But he said, listen, we'll get it twisted I was
always active on trying to make some kind of change,
and then these things befell upon me, and I used
it as my platform, and I tried to show others
to not be afraid to have that platform be shared
with giving back to the people. And so in all

(01:52:45):
the terms, better than the fact that he is in
us anyway, I mean the full total package superstar that
did it all and still.

Speaker 10 (01:52:55):
Found time for us. I mean, how could you say
better than that, brother Romo?

Speaker 36 (01:52:59):
I mean, he is you, he is me. I mean
the fact that we're able to cut through all the
mishmash and the riff graph of the radiation of over
a world that doesn't want to include us with everybody else,
that we could use a platform, and it's why we
called it a platform. And you know, years ago, when

(01:53:23):
Public Enemy was inducted into a Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame, we knew that individual achievements were like, come on,
if we could break a trophy into a thousand pieces
and give it out to ten thousand people, that would
be more about us than accepting a prize or a trophy.
But we saw that maybe it would be important that
we can honor somebody that we felt made it possible

(01:53:48):
for us instead of us getting an honor and HBO
and the Rock Call at that particular time in twenty thirteen,
they had had their TV show and going their TV
show showed the Hall of Fame inductions, but they said
all the way up to that point they were about
having a new young hip artist introduced the Hall of

(01:54:12):
Fame inductee, and we said, well, we're a little different.

Speaker 10 (01:54:17):
We're going to have a platform like that to speak
to the world. We want to honor our hero and
he's not honoring us.

Speaker 36 (01:54:25):
We want to honor him and give him that time
to say anything he wants to the world. And mister
B accepted, came three thousand miles. HBO was like, well,
we don't know if people know who he is and
all that. I said, that's the point they will. They said,

(01:54:48):
have a look, can we can we add Spike Lee
into it? We said, well you can add to Spike Lee.
We're not going to compromise on it. But Spike is
our bro bro and the fact that Spike comes out
of it like we come out of Mister B.

Speaker 10 (01:55:02):
So it only makes the utmost sense.

Speaker 36 (01:55:05):
So that was done in a mister B type of
way that he wouldn't expect expected less and.

Speaker 10 (01:55:13):
How could you how could you get better than that
when you're a hero?

Speaker 1 (01:55:19):
Yes, sir, when when I got When I was so,
I was flying to Dallas my dad's birthday today.

Speaker 2 (01:55:28):
He's seventy six. Uh, he's watching the show.

Speaker 22 (01:55:32):
With my mom.

Speaker 1 (01:55:34):
And I got the text messages that it okay, all right,
happy birthday to your mom, and my dad text message
that he had passed before that. Yeah, I'm sorry, okay,
all right, then it's all good. I got the text
message that he had passed away. I mean normally what
happens is, you know, we go right into you know,

(01:55:57):
reporter mode. We start planning the tribute show, and I
literally tell my staff I need a moment.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
Because it's interesting as you tell that story.

Speaker 10 (01:56:06):
So on.

Speaker 1 (01:56:07):
In twenty thirteen, when I got the National Association of
Black Journalist Journalist of the Year, they asked me, Hey,
we want to interview several people and get their thoughts
and reflections on you and this award. And one of
the folks I asked to say a few words was
Harry Belafonte, and.

Speaker 4 (01:56:27):
He did, and.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
He always the thing that I appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
It was crazy Chuck because whenever we would go to
lunch or dinner, I would just want to listen to him.
I would I wanted to ask questions. I wanted to
listen to him. I wanted to look up as much
as possible. And I never forget we were having lunch.
We were having lunch at Ruth Chris Steakhouse in Manhattan.
This is in twenty seventeen, and he didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:56:59):
Want to talk. All you wanted to do was listen
and to hear what I had to say.

Speaker 7 (01:57:06):
And I was like, man, I don't care about that.

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
He said, no, I want to know what you think.

Speaker 1 (01:57:13):
So he was asking me about all sorts of stuff
a book he was working on, and he was asking lyrically,
do you think I'm I'm going down the right path.

Speaker 2 (01:57:22):
With my thesis? And man, that's the thing that always
that also just blew me away.

Speaker 1 (01:57:28):
He wanted to know what you were thinking because he
was always trying to keep his finger on the pulse.

Speaker 36 (01:57:37):
Yeah, it was a teaching moment that he taught us,
knowing that he was passing the baton, But how do
you catch the baton?

Speaker 2 (01:57:45):
How do you catch?

Speaker 10 (01:57:46):
How do you grab it?

Speaker 36 (01:57:47):
You know what I'm saying, and he always would drop
you know, those wisdoms, those jewels, that knowledge, but in
ways that he exemplified everything that we could ever be right,
I mean really seriously, you know, they over use goats,

(01:58:08):
they over use that, you know, the greatest of full
time academ for that, they over use legends, they over use.

Speaker 10 (01:58:17):
All those accolade superstars.

Speaker 36 (01:58:19):
I mean, I mean, really, really seriously, seriously, it's it's
him starts from that from him really total package to
go anywhere he want to go with it, but still
with selfless and came back to always figure out how

(01:58:39):
does he continue the activity of what we call celebrities, artists, entertainers,
and just understand that we we we we got no
wings on our feet, you know, we we we best
to be glued to everyday folk as a we as
opposed to me. I mean seriously, often at times I

(01:59:04):
think bro Romo, we we take a lot.

Speaker 15 (01:59:10):
For granted, we take.

Speaker 36 (01:59:14):
A lot of our privilege here, we forsake a lot
of that when our superheroes are still here. And ninety
six years it wasn't long enough, you know, ninety six yep.

Speaker 10 (01:59:30):
And most recently I had dropped a.

Speaker 36 (01:59:34):
Piece of art by his house and I'm looking at
the text message from a couple of weeks ago, so
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:59:43):
Yeah, I mean he was just like.

Speaker 36 (01:59:48):
He exemplified how you're supposed to act man when you
got all eyes on you. You know what I'm saying,
enough to say, you you know whatever hoodie tuti or whatever, elite. No,
it's just supposed to be like engage people to come in,
engage with their time, you know, and treat you know,

(02:00:11):
the time that you share with people just as important
as they look at your time. You treat it like
it's their time to to share it.

Speaker 10 (02:00:18):
And I mean like they.

Speaker 36 (02:00:21):
Broke the mold, you know, Sidney Poitier last year, Harry
Belafonte this year, you know, people like Bill Russell last year.

Speaker 10 (02:00:32):
I mean, really we have them to to take examples
from it add to what we could do. Like I
always tell people, I.

Speaker 36 (02:00:42):
Say, like my father who transitions seven years ago, I'm
I'm always climbing to try to be like half the
man he was, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 10 (02:00:54):
So these these heroes, you know, they.

Speaker 36 (02:00:56):
Remind us to keep striving and climbing, man. And uh,
because it's it's so much. If you look at news
across the board.

Speaker 10 (02:01:03):
Broll.

Speaker 36 (02:01:04):
You know that there's not going to be a tribute
that comes even close to how he should be remembered.
They've just done a whole, you know, exodus of anybody
in those circles of media that would even give a
little bit more than a little time. I don't even
know if it's anybody that could come up number one,

(02:01:26):
it ain't coming up half as close as it's like.
Just the images and the heart and the soul that
that you give out on your broadcast, and especially today,
I mean, it's bringing a good emotion.

Speaker 1 (02:01:43):
Well, this is why when TV one ended News one
nine and we did these shows, when I was there
and everything was just stay stuck in my head as
the nation's first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, when they said
we wish to plead our own calls to long have
others spoken for us, Greg car, I'm gonna bring you in.

Speaker 2 (02:02:05):
And this is why, you know, this is why we
do this. You know, I sent a text out.

Speaker 1 (02:02:11):
I mean literally, I haven't even seen anybody else's broadcast.
I said, hey, folks, what else is out there? I
remember when Sidney Poitier died, you did not have wasiously
Tyson died, you did not have, as far as I
was concerned, the proper respect that was paid to them
in terms of tributes and remembrances.

Speaker 2 (02:02:32):
Uh and and I knew this was going to be
the case with Arabella Fonte.

Speaker 1 (02:02:36):
I actually sent a text to several to several anchors
and said, hey, you know, I hope y'all do something,
but this right here, and the thing here, Greg, this
this is two hour tribute we did, and we have
so much stuff that we're literally going to be doing
tributes over the next several days.

Speaker 2 (02:02:54):
To Harabella Fonte.

Speaker 1 (02:02:55):
I'm literally I'm getting text messages from other entertainers who say, man,
I wish I could have said something. I'm like, don't
worry about it. We're creating the space, and that's why
we are here, Chuck. That's why you created rap Station.
That's why I'm just not interested in and hoping and
praying somebody else pays tribute to our heroes.

Speaker 2 (02:03:17):
Damn it. We know how to celebrate them.

Speaker 13 (02:03:21):
No question.

Speaker 32 (02:03:22):
You know.

Speaker 13 (02:03:22):
It's so funny.

Speaker 10 (02:03:23):
It's good.

Speaker 13 (02:03:23):
Good to see you, brother, Chuck. You were ahead of
a lot of the brothers. We know that commercial news
entertainment media has eroded when you went digital and looked
toward the future and started saying, you know, we need
to just start giving this away. That was pressing it.

Speaker 25 (02:03:38):
Man.

Speaker 13 (02:03:38):
That was a generation to go. I know, the time
is filled with swift transitions. How quickly you know, we know,
but every generation has to take it's rolling when we
hear you, when we hear Chuck d says something like,
how you supposed to act? How are you supposed to
act when all eyes are on you? You know, what
is that nexus of celebrity that's very powerful and rolling there.

(02:03:59):
You know, there's a reason why you said the Black
Star Network is curated by Roland Martin. You're putting things out,
you're leaving bread crumbs. As our brother Bernard Lafayette said,
this tribute is really just a few bread crumbs. And
every conversation led to something else. Chucky you were talking
about I was thinking about you down at the National
Museum of Aric American History and Culture last June when
you unveiled songs that shook the planet. And of course

(02:04:21):
that is this generation's iteration of what mister b did
back in two thousand and one when he curated that
Long Road to Freedom. It looks different. Five CDs and
some stuff twenty years ago. Now it's straight to digital.
But it's the same process. Somebody got to stand at
that crossroad. And so every one of these bread crumbs,
Bernard Lafayette talking, you know this is just a bread crumb,

(02:04:45):
and you realize that mister B is the one who
paid for Fanny lou hammering them to go to Guinea
in nineteen seventy four after Freedom Summer and Bernard Lafayette
mentioned the stars for Freedom. Mster B is sitting in
the room when James Bonwin and Lorraine Hansbury and Dick
Gregory and them set fire to Kennedy's natural ads in
Central Park, South, because he's bringing people in the room.

(02:05:06):
So when he passes that betid to you, brother, he's
passing to somebody who came of age during the period
of another warrior. We lost a couple of days ago
to great automatics, a brother who understands and stood in
the gap, and only you can tell the story for
our generation. So when you say, finally, how you behave
when all eyes are on you, that is a call

(02:05:29):
to say that when we see you, when we see Harry,
brother Fonte, when we see Earth the Kit, when we
see Pacity Party eight, when we see Paul Roson, we
don't just see that individual, we see the people they
represent and that puts an incredible burden on people and
it takes special person to take that kind of time. Brother,
So Roland, you know you're curating this and you're giving
bread crumbson you one of those people too, brother, and
this it's were just grateful that you, you know, convene

(02:05:50):
this space.

Speaker 10 (02:05:52):
I appreciate you, brother Greg.

Speaker 36 (02:05:53):
And also I like to add to the fact that
you know, mister b told me himself in the last
days of Paul Ropes and his hero told them about
the responsibility and accountability for each generation. Don't to grasp
as much as it can from the prior generations because
at any given time it may be truncated at the past,

(02:06:16):
and there's three or four generations under me that I
that years ago. I said, it's it's imperative that I
do my best to pass up.

Speaker 10 (02:06:28):
A time because we have a lot of young leaders
out there.

Speaker 36 (02:06:31):
But the sense of organization and where we're at right
now and the perspective of past president of future is
always lost.

Speaker 10 (02:06:39):
That's what I said.

Speaker 36 (02:06:40):
You know, like the entertainers and artists, celebrities, you know,
we have to bring truth to light in the stage
the people that real people that do real things every
day and real people that do things that make sure
that no scholarship gets disrespected because the scholarship that people

(02:07:01):
put in the time to learn something, to move people
to do something, even for self and knowledge yourself.

Speaker 10 (02:07:09):
You know, we can't make that. Ain't no joke.

Speaker 36 (02:07:11):
We know that with this transitioning that they won't even
get the headline correct. That's right, they won't even they
won't even justice just in the headline. I've seen so
many disrespectful headlines.

Speaker 10 (02:07:28):
As in a few hours man, that that you know.

Speaker 13 (02:07:34):
Well, as you said, thing more.

Speaker 2 (02:07:36):
That's why again, refuse to lose.

Speaker 13 (02:07:42):
None of I'm just saying, as Chuck said back in
the day, man, I got so much trouble on my mind,
refuse to lose. So you know, you're standing in the crossroad.
You ain't going down and rollingd You not going down.
So those headlines you're gonna roll over them, brothers.

Speaker 36 (02:07:55):
And we learned from mster b that we have a
great listen, we have a privilege, We have a great
time in the as entertainers, as painters, sculptors, actors, musicians, singers.
You know, mister Bees's documentary is singing your song. We're
privileged to do that. But with the opportunity of all

(02:08:15):
eyes and ears upon us, make some room for real
people that do real things, and see if you could
be an asset instead of detriment.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
Of course, Chuck d always a pleasure, my brother.

Speaker 10 (02:08:31):
Thanks a lot, so salute to both of your peace
and love.

Speaker 2 (02:08:37):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (02:08:38):
Earlier you heard great Carr reference when credits Scott King
died and hair Belafonte was asked to speak at the funeral.
Then when all of the living presidents were invited, including
George W.

Speaker 2 (02:08:53):
Bush, he was disinvited. That was a huge, huge uproar.

Speaker 1 (02:09:00):
Later, talking with MK the Third, he said that, well,
that was never really officially an invite. In mind you,
Harra Belafonte paid for the babysitters, he paid for the education.
I mean he and when doctor King dies, I mean
he financially supports that family in a huge way. In fact,

(02:09:21):
Bernice King actually said that in a tweet today when
she posted about his passing. And I can tell you
because we talked about it. Mister b was very hurt
by not being allowed to speak at the funeral of
Cretit Scott King, and he didn't attend. Twenty seventeen, the

(02:09:44):
National Action Network Reverend Al Sharpton with MOK third honored
Harrab Belafonte on the stage. I was present, I was there,
and that came up, and Harra Belafonte, being the man
that he was, put it behind him.

Speaker 2 (02:10:06):
Here is his speech that night in New York City.

Speaker 6 (02:10:25):
I was counseled.

Speaker 4 (02:10:29):
Not to speak because I have a propensity for staying
longer than audiences deserve. But I must deny that counsel
and just say what a remarkable moment for me that

(02:10:53):
this event is taking place. First and foremost, Reverend Shopton.
I saw him when he first came on the scene,
and I have marveled at his tenacity, at the development
of his intellect, and his devotion to our movement, at

(02:11:19):
much that he has contributed to the world we are experiencing.

Speaker 25 (02:11:26):
I am.

Speaker 4 (02:11:29):
I am honored, and.

Speaker 6 (02:11:32):
I must say that.

Speaker 4 (02:11:35):
When I had my debate with doctor King on the
issue of the church and religion, he didn't warn me
that after his departure his space would be filled by
another preacher and that that preacher would be Al Shopton.

(02:11:57):
I am blessed and honored to have marched with him,
stood on platforms with him, and been in his space
and listened to the richness of his counsel.

Speaker 15 (02:12:09):
And I thank you for.

Speaker 4 (02:12:12):
Creating this evening, Doctor Sharpton. My only regret is that
my closest friend, Sydney Portier, is not here, because if

(02:12:33):
you were to see him, you would recognize how well
I'm doing. I suspect that what I've just said, we'll

(02:12:58):
get back to him before I get off this blackball.
But it's been a wonderful journey, and I say that
with h with the wisdom of that comes with being
ninety years of age. Often with my friend Sidiva, you

(02:13:27):
would sit and talk about what will happen to our
movement and our people. And once we were no longer
on the scene and no place was that question more
emphasized than when Doctor King was taken from us. But

(02:13:50):
it has been our reward to look at the number
of artists who have not only excelled in their craft
and in their choices, but that they too have filled

(02:14:11):
the space most fully in their commitment to the betterment
of the human race and our people. In no way
does that illustration stand more firmly rooted than in the
presence of Latanya and Samuel Jackson. I often wondered when

(02:14:42):
Sydney left the space, who would fill it because he
carried some heavy weight and had some big shoes. That's
the King had the big feet, but Sydney had the
big shoes. And to see sam Jackson and a number

(02:15:06):
of other artists step into the space and begin to
bring a kind of consciousness to art while instructing people
not just about how life is, but to discuss and
to shape visions of how life should be. This honor

(02:15:28):
that I'm given here tonight, I am honored to share
this evening with the awards given to Reverend Baba. He

(02:15:50):
he comes out of the South, and when I heard
his when I heard his gospel, when I heard his voice,
I was calm and fulfilled with the idea that the
torch that we will leave behind will be in the
hands of remarkable men and women who will make sure

(02:16:11):
that our mission fulfills its destiny. I thank you all,
and I think Doctor King for the love and for
the wisdom he gave us. This honor that you've given

(02:16:32):
me here tonight will hang in a place of distinction
in my home and will afford me in the days
that are left, to know that I've walked in a
place where there was so much love and kindness and generosity.
My only question will be that I really deserve it.

(02:16:55):
Thank you the biggest time. Don't know. I had reflected

(02:17:19):
on what I'm about to say, and I had uh,
And I think that uh it deserves saying. The forces
of evil are not just the utterance is made by

(02:17:44):
the likes of Donald Trump. He is not new to us.
After all. In my lifetime, we've experienced Hitler, We've experienced Mussolini,
we've experienced Tojo, we've experienced Mobutu, and we have experienced others.

(02:18:10):
McCarthy and the nation has always showed a resilience, being
able to withstand the onslaught of such mischief. But at
times the detractors seep into our midst and do mischief.

(02:18:30):
I am particularly please tonight to see Martin King the
third on this platform. Yeah, have been our detractors who
have stepped in and tried to poison the waters in
which we swim. But I am delighted that he stands

(02:18:57):
here and I see there's a moment of healing that
that which was misunderstood and caused some moments of pain
and anguish has been put behind us. And I think
that tonight Rev. Shop, you're putting this together and having

(02:19:17):
him as a part this evening's ceremony is a healing
that is deeply welcomed.

Speaker 15 (02:19:28):
And I thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:19:50):
That was eleven years after Criittis Got King died and
it was a very painful episode for hair of Belafonte,
for the King children, and I was there to witness
it that night. Folks, we will be honoring Harry be
Lefonte over the next several days. There's so much stuff
we did not even touch on. There are other speeches

(02:20:12):
that we want to share with you. Other people want
to pay tributes, so many This man's life was so expansive,
and we'll be doing so right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered,
right here on the Black Star Network.

Speaker 2 (02:20:24):
That is it for us today. I will be back
with you tomorrow. We appreciate all of.

Speaker 1 (02:20:29):
You, everybody who shared their contributions. And again there's so
many people who reached out to us who wanted to
share their thoughts, reflections. Many are traveling people are on
sets doing movies and shows, and so we're going to
be sharing these things again over the next few days,

(02:20:49):
and as we get information regarding funeral arrangements for hair Belafonte,
we'll be able to share those with you as well.

Speaker 2 (02:20:58):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (02:20:59):
We do this every single day, five days a week
my show plus what we do in Black Starting Network
because we want to always cover the issue that mattered
to us, cover the people that matter to us, and
cover them in a way that matters to us. I'm
not concerned with what other networks do or don't do
when it comes to Hairbelafonte. We know what we're going

(02:21:20):
to do when it comes to honoring his life and legacy. Uh,
and that's what our plan is. Those of you who
are watching, please support us in what we do. Download
our app, the Blackstart Network app Apple Phone, Android Phone,
Apple TV, Android TV, Roku and was on Fire TV,
Xbox one, Samsung Smart TV.

Speaker 2 (02:21:37):
Support us in what we do by joining I bring.

Speaker 1 (02:21:39):
The Funk Fan Club, Senior checking money orders, pill Box
five seven one at ninety six Washington, d C two
zero zero three seven, DAZ zero one ninety six Cash
opp Dallas sign are m Unfiltered PayPal Are Martin unfiltered.
Venmo was our m unfiltered zeo, rolling at rolling Smartin
dot com, rolling at rollingd Martin, unfiltered dot Com Folks,
that will see you tomorrow. Right here, I'm Roland Martin,

(02:22:02):
unfiltered on the black Star Network

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Celebrating The Life of Harry Belafonte