Legendary singer, actor, activist, and Kennedy Center Honoree Harry Belafonte performs “Try to Remember” and “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower during “An American Pageant of the Arts,” on November 29, 1962. The purpose of the event was to raise funds for the National Cultural Center, begun under Eisenhower's administration and encouraged under Kennedy's.
Two months after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center as a “living memorial” to John F. Kennedy.
Harry Belafonte is a Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is known for his recording of “The Banana Boat Song” with its signature lyric “Day-O.” He has also starred in several films, including Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Belafonte has won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994.
