Harry Belafonte Will Speak at Rutgers Wednesday

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - The Chancellor’s Office of Rutgers-New Brunswick, The Division of Student Affairs, and the Department of Africana Studies will welcome Paul Robeson’s granddaughter Susan Robeson and singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist Harry Belafonte to its Second Annual Paul Robeson Lecture Series on Wednesday, April 5.

Joined by the Director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center (PRCC), Dr. David Jones, and Dr. Edward Ramsamy, Chair of the Department of Africana Studies, Belafonte and Susan Robeson will discuss Paul Robeson’s life and legacy of civil rights activism from 7-9 p.m. in the College Avenue Student Center MultiPurpose Room, located at the College Avenue Student Center at 126 College Avenue in New Brunswick, NJ. Open to the public, doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Harry Belafonte is a singer, songwriter, actor as well as a political activist. He is well know for bringing Caribbean calypso music to the United States in the 1950s and singing "The Banana Boat" song.

A friend to Paul Robeson, Belafonte was an early supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s confidants. Throughout his career he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement and USA for Africa. Belafonte's political beliefs were greatly inspired by the singer, actor, activist, and Rutgers alumnus Paul Robeson, who mentored him. Belafonte currently serves as the ACLU's celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.

The son of a runaway slave, Robeson earned a scholarship to Rutgers, where he received an unprecedented twelve major letters in four years and was his class valedictorian. In 1919, he became just the third African-American to graduate from Rutgers and continued on to Columbia University Law School before beginning a career as an artist and activist that spanned four decades.

During "I Am Robeson Week," the Paul Robeson Cultural Center invites the Rutgers University community to learn about the life of Robeson.

A producer, documentary filmmaker, writer, and consultant, Susan Robeson is also the author of a pictorial biography of her grandfather entitled, 'The Whole World in His Hands.’ Still very interested in how her grandfather affected the times that he lived in, she has taught classes on Paul Robeson and the 20th century at Macalester College, Carleton College and Colorado College, where she also taught classes on documentary film.

Harry Belafonte/Wikimedia Commons image/Thomas Good