Harry Belafonte, The King Of Calypso, Dies At 96

Rest in peace and power Harry Belafonte (1927-2023). He was known as a singer, an actor, a civil rights activist, a humanitarian, and a son of Harlem.

Today I dusted off an old paperback biography called Belafonte: A Tough Kid from Harlem Goes to Hollywood by Genia Fogelson (Holloway House Publishing, 1980). The book is probably out of print but has a useful (although obviously incomplete) discography and filmography in the back. (Copies of the book are available on Amazon but not at its original price of $1.95. One copy is priced at $25.00, another is being offered for $28.98.)

Books On Race And Racism

In light of all the discussions on television, radio, in the print media, and online regarding racism, white privilege, social inequality, police brutality toward people of color, etc., I picked out the following six books from my bookshelves that I plan to read. It is my hope that they will be food for thought on race and race relations.

1. The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Are Middle Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care? by Ellis Cose (HarperCollins, 1993).

2. Einstein on Race and Racism by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

3. The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call by Carl T. Rowan (Little, Brown and Company, 1996).

4. Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement by Simeon Booker with Carol McCabe Booker (University Press of Mississippi, 2013).

5. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins, 2010).

6. Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth (Flatiron Books, 2018). Originally published in 2014 by Police and Fire Publishing. The book was the basis for Spike Lee's film.

A History Lesson

This unpublished letter-to-the-editor was sent to the New York Daily News "Voice of the People" via e-mail on May 1, 2015.

Dear Editor:

I don't excuse or condone the actions of the rioters and looters in Baltimore. And Voicer Andrew Keats is correct when he stated that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "didn't sit at home waiting for an excuse to steal, destroy and riot." However, Keats paints a rose-colored depiction of the civil rights movement and Dr. King's peaceful and nonviolent marches. He overlooks the fact that despite Dr. King's nonviolent protests against social injustice, he was still thought to be a lawbreaker, an agitator, and a Communist dupe, if not an outright Communist, by Southern segregationists, conservative religious leaders, and J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

AIDS Researcher Wins Eviction Battle

A Greenwich Village co-op board 's year-long court battle to evict a doctor who treats persons with AIDS ended in defeat on October 17 [1984], due to the efforts of a gay rights group and the New York state attorney general's office.

The board, representing the tenants of 49 West 12th Street, told Dr. Joseph A. Sonnabend last year that the tenants wanted him out of the building because of concern for their health and the lowering of property values of their apartments due to AIDS patients entering his office.

Sonnabend, a microbiologist and the occupant of the ground floor office since 1977, consulted his lawyer, William Hibsher of the New York law firm Teitelbaum and Hiller. Hibsher is also a board member of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the organization which took the case to court and succeeded in blocking the eviction with a temporary restraining order. The order was issued on October 14, 1983, by the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Sonnabend had no quarrel with the board's right to evict him. "But the mistake they made," said Sonnabend, "was to say it was over AIDS."

Then it became a case of discrimination, said Hibsher,"against a population that is really more deserving of people's compassion and help. I think that all people know that very often discrimination against people with AIDS is another form of discrimination against gay people."

In New York State, there is no law prohibiting discrimination against people because of sexual orientation; however, Lambda used a provision of the state's human rights law protecting disabled people from discrimination as the basis for their lawsuit.

"Five of Sonnabend's patients," said Hibsher, "joined in the lawsuit for legal reasons. We were concerned that since Dr. Sonnabend is not himself a disabled person, the defendant might take the position that [Sonnabend] could not raise the disability statute in support of his legal position."

With the patients as co-plaintiffs, continued Hibsher, "they could say they are disabled persons, and they are potentially being discriminated against by the building's decision." Two of the five patients have since died of the disease.

In the court settlement, Sonnabend was awarded $10,000 in damages and a new one-year lease. The co-op must also pay $1,000 in legal costs to state Attorney General Robert Abrams's office, which acted as Lambda's co-counsel.

Hibsher sees the settlement as a landmark case that "projects a very strong image on the part of those who protect the rights of these citizens."

He continued: "It's, to our knowledge, the first litigation brought in connection with alleged discrimination against people with AIDS, and it established very importantly legal procedures in the State of New York and nationwide; One, that people with AIDS are considered disabled persons under the disability laws, and most states have a civil rights law which protects persons who are disabled from discrimination. Two, the court issued a preliminary injunction in the course of the litigation and part of its ruling was that it accepted the expert opinion that AIDS is not casually transmitted. Consequently, the court rejected any notion that a person with AIDS could be segregated or kept out of a public accommodation on the grounds of potential contagion. Three, and I think most important, the case stands for the proposition that the civil rights community, Lambda, the attorney general of the State of New York, and other litigants are not going to sit back and let people discriminate" against people who are gravely ill.

Sonnabend, who spends much of his time doing research, said that after the settlement, "some of the tenants offered their congratulations. Many tenants at the time [of the eviction attempt] were quite unhappy with the way the board proceeded."


This article was originally published in the Gay Community News (Boston) on November 10, 1984.

A Tale Of Two Presidents

The following is a letter I wrote to Bayard Rustin on December 7, 1977.

Bayard Rustin, Executive Director
A. Philip Randolph Institute
260 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010

Dear Mr. Rustin:

Shortly after LBJ's death, you and A. Philip Randolph issued a joint statement to the press linking the late 36th president's name with that of the 16th president's.

I quote: "With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, no single President contributed as much to the cause of racial equality as Lyndon Johnson." Then both of you enumerated some of Johnson's contributions: "...the civil rights act of 1964, the voting rights act, open housing, and innumerable pieces of liberal legislation that were a part of the Great Society."

I agree that the emancipation of the slaves by Lincoln was a monumental and praiseworthy act, however, if we compare the overall contributions each made to the civil rights cause, Johnson's record glows like an incandescent light bulb. Lincoln freed the slaves, but he did not work diligently to see that they were provided with education, jobs, and housing. According to the noted historian John Hope Franklin, "Lincoln hoped that the Proclamation would provide the basis for a new attitude and policy for Negroes." In other words, Lincoln was relying on the state governments to be benevolent enough to take care of these newly-emancipated individuals, who had not been prepared for freedom. I think Lyndon Johnson said it best when he said, "You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying  'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair."

John Hope Franklin points out in his essay on the Emancipation Proclamation that "...he had come to the conclusion that in order to save the Union he must emancipate some of the slaves." Also, "There was no emancipation in the border states, with which the abolitionists had so little patience. Parts of states under Union control were excepted...." But slaves in these areas refused to recognize the exceptions. The Emancipation Proclamation was not all that it appeared to be.

Can you imagine Lyndon Johnson, a champion of the underdog all his life, saying as did  Abraham Lincoln in 1858 (a short time before he became president): "I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races...." He added, "...and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." To me, this is nothing more than racist demagoguery and tarnishes Lincoln's image as the Great Emancipator. To say Lincoln, by virtue of the fact that he freed the slaves, is the greatest civil rights president in American history is as wrong as a left shoe on a right foot. That title belongs to Lyndon Baines Johnson, our 36th president from the Lone Star State of Texas.

I would be very happy to hear what comments you and/or Mr. Randolph have regarding this letter.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

Note: No response was received from Bayard Rustin or A. Philip Randolph.