Activist And Entertainer Harry Belafonte Dies At 96

UNITED STATES – Singer, actor and activist, Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96.
Belafonte was dubbed the “King of Calypso” after the groundbreaking success of his 1956 hit, “The Banana Boat Song, Day-O.”

Family say Belafonte died Tuesday morning of congestive heart failure.

He was a key strategist, fundraiser and mediator for the Civil Rights Movement and continually risked his entertainment career for his activism.

Belafonte, whose political consciousness was shaped by the experience of growing up as the son of a poor Jamaican mother, later became a close friend of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.