Day light come and me want to go home.

I put this on facebook, and I thought i'd drop it here, too.


There are few people whom i respect more than the late Harry Belafonte. Besides his great acting and singing career, Harry devoted much of his time to the good fight. He was a peace activist and, during the 60's, was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement. For those not old enough to remember, Harry's pictures marching alongside MLK were in magazine after magazine.

To be sure, many celebrities marched with MLK and proudly displayed their pictures with him, but Harry did more than march and smile next to King, as one historian accurately stated, "Harry was the lifeline of the Civil Rights Movement."

During the Freedom Summer of 1964, Belafonte became The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) primary financier.

Shortly after the murdered bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were finally found on August 4, 1964, Belafonte received a telephone call from James Forman, head of SNCC. He told Belafonte that they were going to run out of money in Mississippi within the next 72 hours. Belafonte quickly raised $70,000, worth significantly more today.


Belafonte along with Sidney Poitier stuffed the $70,000 into a doctor's bag and flew into the Greenwood airport at night. Mississippi banks refused the wiring of money to Civil Rights groups. They were met by SNCC volunteers who immediately came under attack.

Their car was soon chased and rammed by a truck filled with Ku Klux Klansmen, who also fired gunshots at them. A convoy of other SNCC vehicles drove out to meet them, and Belafonte and Poitier were escorted to safety at the SNCC headquarters. Belafonte dumped the $70,000 in cash onto a table, saving the Freedom Summer project from financial collapse.