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Read EntryMy Birthday
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Read EntryThe beginning of Black History Month
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Read EntryW.E.B DuBois
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Read EntryLife in Harlem
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Read EntryLife in Jamaica
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Read EntryPersonal recollection of childhood
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Read EntryIn The Navy
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Read EntryPaul Robeson
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Read EntryPaul Robeson Speech – Artist’s Can’t Stand Aloof
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Read EntryThe New School- The Dramatic Workshop
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Read EntryErwin Piscator – Founder of The New School of Drama
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Read EntryPerforming at the Village Vanguard
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Read EntryPeekskill Outrage
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Read EntryDorothy Dandridge
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Read EntrySong: Scarlett Ribbons
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Read EntrySong: Day-O (Banana Boat Song)
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Read EntryJohn Murray Anderson’s Almanac
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Read EntryThe Search For Communists
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Read EntryBright Road Trailer – 1953
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Read EntryCarmen Jones – 1954
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Read EntryWorld’s First Platinum Album – Calypso (1956)
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Read EntryHarry Belafonte and Nat King Cole – Mama Look A Boo Boo
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Read EntryNat King Cole
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Read EntryEleanor Roosevelt
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Read EntryTom Mboya: Airlift Africa Project
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Read EntryHarBel Productions – Odds Against Tomorrow + The World, The Flesh and The Devil
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Read EntryStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
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Read EntryElla Baker
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Read EntryMartin Luther King, Jr.
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Read EntryTom Mboya
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Read EntryTry To Remember
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Read EntryThe 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
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Read EntryCivil Rights Roundtable – 1963
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Read EntryStory of Belafonte and Poitier take $70,000 to SNCC
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Read EntryPete Seeger and People’s Songs
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Read EntryMiriam Makeba
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Read EntryMiriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte
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Read EntryBelafonte and SNCC
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Read EntryHarry Belafonte and Danny Kaye
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Read EntryMemphis Sanitation Workers Strike (1968)
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Read EntryAmerican Indian Movement
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Read EntryHarry Belafonte on Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (uncensored)
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Read EntryHarry Belafonte and Julie Andrews
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Read EntryWounded Knee Occupation and Belafonte’s Support – AIM
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Read EntryMuppets: Turn the World Around
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Read EntryWe Are The World
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Read EntryThe Award of Appreciation at the 1986 American Music Awards
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Read EntryHarry Belafonte’s involvement with UNICEF
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Read EntryThe Gathering for Justice
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Read Entry1199SEIU Bread and Roses Cultural Project

Song: Day-O (Banana Boat Song)
From Wikipedia:
The song was originally a Jamaican folk song. Its popular version was adapted by Barbadian Irving Burgie. It was thought to be sung by Jamaican banana workers, with a repeated melody and refrain (call and response), with each set lyric there would be a response from the workers but with many different sets of lyrics, some possibly improvised on the spot. The first recorded version was done by Trinidadian singer Edric Connor and his band “Edric Connor and the Caribbeans” in 1952, on the album Songs From Jamaica; the song was called “Day Dah Light”. Belafonte based his version on a 1954 recording by Jamaican folk singer Louise Bennett. In 1955, singer/songwriters Irving Burgie and William Attaway wrote a version of the lyrics for the Colgate Comedy Hour in which the song was performed by Harry Belafonte. This is the version that is by far the best known to listeners today, as it reached number five on the Billboard charts in 1957 and later became Belafonte’s signature song. Side two of Harry Belafonte’s 1956 Calypso album opens with “Star O”, a song referring to the day shift ending with the first star seen in the sky. Also in 1956, folk singer Bob Gibson, who had travelled to Jamaica and heard the song, taught his version of it to the folk band The Tarriers. They recorded a version of that song that mixed in the chorus of another Jamaican folk song, “Hill and Gully Rider”, and released it, spawning what became their biggest hit. It outdid Belafonte’s original on the pop charts, reaching number four.
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Stack banana till de morning come
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Beautiful bunch of ripe banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day….ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home

Belafonte Recommended Reading (Pt.1)
Below you’ll find a list of recommended reading from Harry Belafonte which will be released in …

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street
Official Site of Occupy Wall Street Additional Reading: Interview and Q&A with Harry Belafonte regarding …

My Song: A Memoir
Purchase it HERE Additional Reading NYTimes Article from Garrison Keillor Additional Listening NPR Interview …

1199SEIU Bread and Roses Cultural Project
Bread and Roses Belafonte recently assumed leadership of Bread And Roses. He has performed at 1199 events …

The Gathering for Justice
In 2005, Harry Belafonte organized ‘The Gathering For Justice’ as a way to shine awareness on gang …

Harry Belafonte’s involvement with UNICEF
Over the years, Mr. Belafonte’s dedication and generosity of spirit has helped set a high standard …