The Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School has announced that its rescheduled Fifth Keith Biennial Lecture will feature actor, singer and humanitarian Harry Belafonte.
Belafonte’s lecture, “Where We Are Headed,” sponsored by Comerica Bank, will be held at 7 p.m. in Wayne State University’s Community Arts Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 8.
Peter Hammer, Wayne Law professor and direcor of the Keith Center, says the biennial event is “one of the most significant and anticipated civil rights events in the Detroit community.”
“This event will serve as an appropriate kickoff to our fall events and festivities, which will culminate with the Oct. 19 grand opening ceremony for the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights,” he said.
The Keith Biennial Lecture Series was initiated in 2002 with speaker Lani Guinier, former Keith clerk and the first woman of color appointed to a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School.
The lecture series has brought other leading scholars and activists to Detroit to address issues of race, civil rights and social justice.
Previous speakers have included Theodore Shaw, former director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Constance Rice, co-founder and co-director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles; and New York University School of Law Professor Derrick Bell, scholar, activist and expert on critical race theory.
Belafonte, who was born in Harlem, N.Y., and spent much of his childhood in his mother’s native Jamaica, is well known for his movie roles and music.
He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his Broadway performance in John Murray Anderson’s “Almanac,” and starred in films such as “Carmen Jones,” “Kansas City,” “Swing Vote,” “Island in the Sun” and “Odds Against Tomorrow”; the latter two explored racial boundaries.
His albums “Belafonte” and “Calypso” soared to No. 1, the second launching a nationwide craze for Jamaican music. In addition, he became television’s first black producer, winning an Emmy for his special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”
Though he continued to record throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Belafonte began to put more energy into civil rights and humanitarian work. He was a leader in the USA for Africa effort in 1985, singing on the hit 1985 single “We Are the World,” and he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1986.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Register online at https://specialevents.wayne.edu/5thbiennialbelafonte.
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