Five African-American celebrities who risked their careers by joining the civil rights struggle

Harry Belafonte

Belafonte’s boyish looks helped charm an audience that was willing to listen to his exceptional voice. And so the musician channeled his fame into fighting the good fight.

He was a personal friend of Martin Luth King Jr, even providing for King’s family financially.

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As a result of activism, he was branded a communist and blacklisted by the witch hunt of McCarthyism.