{"id":12809,"date":"2026-07-21T18:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12809"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:42:17","slug":"harry-belafonte-hosted-everyone-from-robert-f-kennedy-and-paul-newman-to-martin-luther-king-jr-on-the-tonight-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12809","title":{"rendered":"Harry Belafonte Hosted Everyone From Robert F. Kennedy and Paul Newman to Martin Luther King Jr. on \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI guess I could use some of this time to get into pleasantries,\u201d Belafonte begins, \u201cto talk about the many experiences I\u2019ve had with you not only here but in Europe and other places.\u201d This, it\u2019s clear as he pauses to raise his head, isn\u2019t what he wants to do. \u201cWhat do you have in store for us this summer?\u201d Now King joins in the crowd\u2019s nervy laughter: the summer of 1968, everyone seems to sense, is going to be a doozy. And America\u2019s foremost activist for justice is glad to explain, by way of a capsule history of the past few years in American life, what he\u2019s focusing on now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">King says that the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were great victories. But they\u2019ve done little, in the three years since the latter\u2019s passage, to undo inequalities built over centuries. And redressing such ills will require more than confronting prejudice. \u201cI feel,\u201d he intones, \u201cthat we are in the midst of a most critical period in our nation. And the economic problem is probably the most serious problem confronting the Negro community, and poor people generally.\u201d King insists that America\u2019s inability to battle poverty at home can\u2019t be disconnected from its waging immoral wars abroad. He has a sound bite ready: \u201cThe fact is we spend approximately five hundred thousand dollars to kill each Vietcong soldier while we spend only about fifty-three dollars a year for every person characterized as poverty stricken.\u201d And he has a plan. He wants to use the same methods he used to advocate for civil rights for Black Americans to confront more far-reaching ills: \u201cI think the time has come to bring to bear the nonviolent direct action movement on the economic conditions that we face all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Now the studio audience is silent; these aren\u2019t joking matters. But one can sense, in the crowd\u2019s silence, something more. Liberal Americans are accustomed to looking at King with the admiring respect signaled by Paul Newman as he concentrates, from the couch, on King\u2019s words. But backing eloquent calls for equality and fairness was one thing. Questioning capitalism is another. In the crowd\u2019s silence, and in King\u2019s tired look as he tries to explain why it\u2019s necessary to do so, one can sense how beleaguered he feels. In his life\u2019s final year, he\u2019s trying to use the moral platform he\u2019s built to train his admirers\u2019 eyes on a broader and more radical movement for justice. And Harry\u2019s next question, one can tell from his friend\u2019s face, is unexpected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cDo you fear for your life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Martin pauses, shoots Harry a look. Then collects himself. \u201cWe have lived with this a number of years now. Since we started out in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956, I had to deal with this problem because if I moved around worrying about it, it would completely immobilize me.\u201d He\u2019s speaking softly, but his words echo sentiments to which he\u2019ll soon give voice in a famous speech. \u201cAnd so I\u2019ve come to the point where I take this whole matter very philosophically. I\u2019m more concerned about doing something for humanity, and what I consider the will of God, than about longevity. Ultimately, it isn\u2019t so important how long you live, the important thing is how well you live.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI guess I could use some of this time to get into pleasantries,\u201d Belafonte begins, \u201cto talk about the many experiences I\u2019ve had with you not only here but in Europe and other places.\u201d This, it\u2019s clear as he pauses to raise his head, isn\u2019t what he wants to do. \u201cWhat do you have in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a5e3f42cc3a58ca79c1ccf1\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/RFK_on_Tonight_Show_19270461670200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}