Harry Belafonte Interview (11:33)

In this 1968 segment, singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte talks to the Bed-Stuy community in a local Brooklyn park, and takes a Q&A from Bed-Stuy residents.

Belafonte had always been active in civil rights–Five years before this interview, he joined the historic March on Washington, D.C. with Martin Luther King, Jr. In this video, the entertainer, surrounded by a group of adults and kids in a park, discusses his problem with the inaccurate representation of blacks in the media. He later fields questions from several spectators on issues of poverty, education and politics affecting the black community.

To this day, Belafonte continues to speak on behalf of human rights. In 1987, he became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and has traveled to countries such as Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa. Most recently Belafonte received the 2006 Black Entertainment Television Humanitarian Award.

Read more about Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant and Belafonte’s activism:
* Interview with producer Charles Hobson

* Overview of Black-produced television from 1968, including Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant

* Harry Belafonte’s biography on UNICEF Web site

* Harry Belafonte Web site

* A photograph of Harry Belafonte with actors Sidney Poitier and Charlton Heston at the 1963 March on Washington

* Harry Belafonte with his 2006 Black Entertainment Television Humanitarian Award

Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant was originally broadcast on WNEW. This clip provided to the web courtesy the producer.