Harry Belafonte: Art and the Human Soul

“Some who’ve controlled institutions of culture and commentary have at times used their power to not only distort truth but to punish the truth-seekers…. And on occasion, I have been one of its targets.”

So said actor and singer Harry Belafonte in a November 8, 2014 speech in Hollywood, California while accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He spoke at the sixth Governors Awards ceremony. Belafonte spoke of art’s ongoing struggle, for and against racism. He reminded us that art has power, and that art can direct its power either to good or ill. He reminded us of the resolution needed to challenge injustice. Using the basic organizational method of comparison and contrast, Belafonte showed that art changes lives, and that artists make a choice when they use that power. As Black History Month continues in February 2024, let us remember Belafonte’s courageous insight.


The Birth of a Nation: Art for Evil Power

So, Belafonte began by talking about the powerful 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation. Belafonte began by noting the film’s astonishing creativity:

“By all measure this cinematic work was considered the greatest film ever made.”

Of course, we all know that The Birth of a Nation offered a radically conservative view of the American Civil War and celebrated the rise of the murderous Ku Klux Klan.

To Belafonte, The Birth of a Nation treated art’s awesome power to affect human behavior. After Americans watched the movie’s stunningly inaccurate and immoral version of Confederate history, violent anti-Black race riots swept across the United States of America:

“The power of moving pictures to impact on human behavior was never more powerfully evidenced than when, after the release of this film, American citizens went on a murderous rampage. Races were set one against the other. Fire and violence erupted. Baseball bats and billy clubs bashed heads. Blood flowed in streets of our cities; and lives were lost.”

Belafonte pointed out that President Woodrow Wilson was one of The Birth of a Nation’s biggest fans. Wilson’s powerful endorsement made The Birth of a Nation, with all of its racist tropes, even more persuasive to a gullible public:

“The film also gained the distinction of being the first film ever screened at the White House. The then-presiding President Woodrow Wilson openly praised the film, and with the power of this presidential anointing, validated the film’s brutality and its grossly distorted view of history.”

Tarzan, the "Porcelain Adonis"

The Birth of a Nation was not the only racist film in the United States’ history. Belafonte remarked on his 1935 viewing of a Tarzan movie. He was stunned by Tarzan’s supposed racial superiority:

“Tarzan was a sight to see. This porcelain Adonis, this white liberator, who could speak no language, swinging from tree to tree, saving Africa from the tragedy of destruction by a black indigenous population.”

Recognizing movies’ power to alter racial attitudes, Belafonte remarked on the brazen, anti-African racism that Tarzan conveyed:

“Through this film, the virus of racial inferiority, of never wanting to be identified with anything African, swept into the psyche of its youthful observers. And for the years that followed, Hollywood brought abundant opportunity for black children in their Harlem theaters to cheer Tarzan and boo Africans.”

To broaden things out, Belafonte noted the broad racism of American filmmaking:

“Native American[s], our Indian brothers and sisters, fared no better. And at the moment, Arabs ain’t lookin’ so good.”

Young Harry Belafonte Singing

Art and the Moral Encounter

Films like The Birth of a Nation and Tarzan the Fearless inspired too many viewers toward racism and evil. However, to Belafonte, they were springboards (reactions, maybe) to moral rebellion:

“It was an early stimulus to the beginning of my rebellion, rebellion against injustice and human distortion, and hate. How fortunate for me that the performing arts became the catalyst that fueled my desire for social change.”

Belafonte cited his mentor, Paul Robeson, and authors Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and James Baldwin, among others, as artists who “inspired me” and became his “moral compass.

This led Belafonte to quote Robeson that "Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. They are civilization’s radical voice."


Is Art Now Speaking in a More Inspiring Voice?

Belafonte expressed his gratitude that he had lived long enough to see more positive filmmaking. Talking about recent films, he explained that:

“…today’s cultural harvest yields a sweeter fruit: Defiant Ones, Schindler’s List, Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave, and many more.”

Belafonte emphasized the power that art has to help us understand human nature:

“… all of this [is] happening at the dawning of technological creations that would give artists boundless regions of possibilities to give us deeper insights into human existence.”

So, overall, Belafonte condemned the harsh racism of past filmmaking, while praising the deeper, more discerning films that have appeared recently.


A Call to Moral Action

Concluding, Belafonte urged artists of every genre to become “visionaries” to uplift people’s souls and to influence the world to do what is good, to see the better side of human nature:

“Perhaps we, as artists and as visionaries for what’s better in the human heart and the human soul, could you influence citizens everywhere in the world to see the better side of who and what we are as a speci[es].”

What lessons can we learn from Belafonte’s speech? Yes, we learn brilliant artists can speak either for evil or for good, according to their preferences. Belafonte’s opening example, The Birth of a Nation, reminded us that art can shape reality and human behavior, equally for evil or for good. How will artists exercise their passions? That is a moral choice.

How can we understand Belafonte’s rhetorical approach? Belafonte made his point by contrasting the wickedness of two powerful movies against the hopefulness of a coterie of great artists. We can see the good most clearly only after evil's persuasive power has shocked us to the core. 

Was Belafonte too optimistic? He rightly pointed out newer films that take a broader, more humane perspective. Nevertheless, Tarzan has not disappeared from the screen, while female white goddesses like Sheena, Queen of the Jungle sometimes arise to rescue central Africa. I also wonder about 2005's Lord of War. Although that film places the onus on white Americans and Europeans, it continues the view that Black Africans live amidst unrelieved ignorance and corruption. So, I have not become totally optimistic. 

In this speech, Belafonte commissioned the nation’s—the world’s—artists to use their power to bring out the best that humanity has to offer. He documented a problem, and a promising solution followed. He warned us about the evil that art can produce, and yet he balanced that warning with hope. 

by William D. Harpine

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Remembering Black History Month, here are a few of my previous posts about historical African American Speakers: 

Frederick Douglass’ 1852 Fourth of July Speech and the Christian Right

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speech about Mountains

Fannie Lou Hamer, "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired," Gave a Voting Rights Speech in Narrative Style

Stokely Carmichael in 1966: Civil Rights Laws Enforce Rights that Already Exist

Tyler Perry at the 2019 BET Awards: "Helping Someone Cross" as a Metaphor for Reaching Out to Help

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P.S. Harry Belafonte and Petula Clark caused a brief dustup in 1968 when they rendered a powerful duet of Clark's antiwar song "Path of Glory" on television; Clark touched Belafonte on the arm. This interracial touching aroused great offense in some quarters. Clark refused to delete the scene. 

Thanks to AmericanRhetoric.com for publishing a transcript of this great speech.

How racist was The Birth of a Nation? Well, in one series of scenes, the audience sees the Reconstruction-era South Carolina legislature dominated by African American lawmakers who drink moonshine on the legislative floor, stand up to speak while chewing on a chicken leg, and intimidate white women in the gallery. Is that racist enough?

The Tarzan movie that Belafonte viewed in 1933 was presumably Tarzan the Fearless, maybe Tarzan the Ape Man. Both films depict outrageously stereotypical views of Africans. 

Copyright © 2024 by William D. Harpine

Image: Library of Congress, Carl Van Vechten collection,

 public domain, not to be altered in any way