Will Hollywood Face the Complicated Truth About Harry Belafonte?

John Legend is set to portray Harry Belafonte in Bill Condon’s apartheid-era drama The Road Home, but as Hollywood prepares to celebrate the legendary entertainer and activist, will it also confront how he allegedly felt about Black women? Belafonte’s place in history is undeniable, but if we’re going to discuss someone’s history, all good and bad parts need to be shared. 

In her book “Confessions of a Sex Kitten,” Eartha Kitt recalled meeting Belafonte while performing at New York’s Village Vanguard. She found him handsome and hoped to know him better, though their relationship initially remained formal. 

According to Kitt, that eventually changed in Philadelphia, and so did her perception of him.

“Getting up from my bed, he said, ‘I don’t want you to take this seriously. No Black woman can do anything for me,’” Kitt wrote. “There went my heart right into my feet.”

It is a repulsive account, particularly when placed beside Belafonte’s reputation as a champion of Black liberation. How could a man fight so fiercely for Black people while allegedly speaking so dismissively about Black women?

Unfortunately, that contradiction was not limited to one celebrated man.

In a continuously resurfaced 1968 television interview, James Earl Jones sat beside his then-wife, white actress Julienne Marie, and described Black women as “uptight” about their position in society. 

He claimed there was an “unfeminine aspect” to Black women and suggested their changing political consciousness had made them increasingly militant and masculine.

The legend said he married Marie because of who she was, not her race, before declaring that she had “outshined” most women he had met. Marie then joined the conversation, claiming she sensed hostility from nearly every Black woman they encountered.

Could it be these Black men wanted to outdo their white men counterparts.  Quincy Jones offered what seemed to be common thinking of that generation during a 2018 GQ interview. 

Discussing interracial relationships, he called them “part of a revolution,” recalling how Black men once rebelled against warnings not to touch a white man’s money or women. To him, dating across racial lines represented “freedom.”

But where did that leave Black women? Too often, they were expected to fight beside Black men for racial equality while absorbing rejection, ridicule and misogynoir from those same men. And that is still true to this day.

Now, younger audiences are uncovering these archival clips on TikTok and X and refusing to treat fame as immunity.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tvphCE/ 

Journalist Imani B criticized Jones for making those remarks “in the thick of Black women embracing themselves naturally” and fighting for liberation.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tvHURf/ 

She was harsh, but honestly, she took it easy on him if you ask me.

Hollywood has already shown its willingness to polish complicated legacies.

The recent Michael Jackson biopic faced criticism for ending before the most controversial period of his life and omitting the sexual-abuse allegations that followed. The attorneys for the Jackson estate, who also served as a producers, realized there was a clause in a settlement with one of the singer’s accusers that prohibited the depiction or mention of him in any movie.

To be fair, The Road Home is not solely a Belafonte biopic, but putting him back onscreen still invites renewed examination of who he was. Belafonte’s activism deserves recognition, and Kitt’s pain deserves space in that history, too.

If Hollywood only gives us the hero while erasing the Black women wounded along the way, it is not preserving a legacy, but instead it is protecting one.