June 20

Harry Belafonte Wins An Emmy

Harry Belafonte became the first African American to win an Emmy on June 20, 1960.  Belafonte was a singer, an actor, producer, songwriter and social activist. He set musical records with the highest selling album by a single artist in 1956, Calypso sold over a million albums.

In addition to the Emmy, he won a Tony Award, Academy Award, three Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Belafonte was well known for his civil rights activism, he was a prominent fixture in civil right protests and marches and a close ally to the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.   He continued his activism for various humanitarian causes into the twentieth first century.  Belafonte was born on March 1, 1927 in New York City.  He died Tuesday, April 25, 2023 of congestive heart failure at age 96 in his Upper West Side Manhattan New York City home. Harry Belafonte being interviewed backstage during the screening "Sing Your Song" by Occupy TVNY on October 30, 2011.