Before Harry Belafonte was a superstar, known as the "King of Calypso" for his smash hits in the 1950s and for funneling his wealth into support for the civil rights movement, he was a World War II Navy veteran who narrowly missed the war's biggest stateside disaster.
He died April 25, 2023, at age 96 at his home in New York. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to his spokesman.
Belafonte dropped out of high school in New York City, and after watching a World War II propaganda film, he enlisted at age 17. He ultimately served 18 months between 1944 and 1945 at Port Chicago, California, near San Francisco.
In the still-segregated U.S. military, Black service members were not typically assigned to frontline fighting units and instead served in support roles stateside. Belafonte's job was to load military ships bound for the Pacific theater.
But just before he arrived in Port Chicago, 320 service members -- two-third of them Black sailors -- were killed when munitions detonated during loading onto a cargo vessel. About 390 service members and civilians were also injured. The deaths and injuries are believed to account for 15% of all Black service member casualties during the war.
"It was the worst homefront disaster of World War II, but almost no one knows about it or what followed," Belafonte said, according to a Defense Department press release about his service.
The disaster sparked a strike among the Black sailors as they refused to continue loading munitions under the same leadership and safety system as before the accident. Fifty of the sailors, known as the Port Chicago 50, were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to prison. Most were not released until 1946.
"The Port Chicago mutiny was one of America's ugliest miscarriages of justice, the largest mass trial in naval history, and a national disgrace," Belafonte said according to the release, and credited television producer Ted Turner and his staff with having the courage to put the story on television.
A Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated in 1994 to the sailors killed in the disaster.
After leaving the Navy in 1945, Belafonte returned to New York City and used his GI Bill to pay for classes at The New School Dramatic Workshop. His fellow students included future actor Marlon Brando and Sidney Poitier, who became a lifelong friend.
To supplement his income while attending acting classes, Belafonte sang at nightclubs at times backed by music legends, including jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Miles Davis.
Later, he developed an interest in folk music. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte made his debut at The Village Vanguard, a legendary jazz club in New York City. In 1953, he signed a contract with RCA Victor, recording regularly for the label until 1974.
Belafonte also performed during the so-called Rat Pack era in Las Vegas. He and pianist Liberace, musician and singer Ray Vasquez, and singer Sammy Davis Jr. were featured at the Sands Hotel and Casino and the Dunes Hotel.
Belafonte's first widely released single, which became his signature audience participation song in virtually all of his live performances, was "Matilda," recorded on April 27, 1953. His breakthrough album "Calypso" (1956) became the first long-playing record in the world to sell more than 1 million copies within a year.
The album introduced American audiences to calypso music, and Belafonte was dubbed the King of Calypso.
Besides calypso, Belafonte recorded blues, folk, gospel, show tunes and American standards.
Belafonte was an early supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s close friends. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.
He has also starred in several films, most notably "Carmen Jones" (1954), "Island in the Sun" (1957) and "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959). And in 1968, he made history substituting for Johnny Carson as a guest host for "The Tonight Show." Among his guests were King and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Editor's Note: Material from a Defense Department biography by David Vergun of Belafonte was included in this report.
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