a great story of him on the tonight show tonight harry belafonte was guest hosting.e the story. dr. king was in atlanta and harry belafonte was guest hosting and king leaves atlanta late and an -- lands in new york late. he said i cannot be late. the cab driver starts drive like a bat out of hell and is running through red lights. dr. king goes, i do want to arrive, i would much rather arrive late and than be the late dr. king. he told it on the show. he was a funny, funny guy. harry belafonte got him to tell the story and it killed the audience. a rare moment of levity. he had textures. he may have been on "dancing with the stars." >> aretha franklin. r-e-s-p-e-c-t. >> she raised more money on the movement to any other artist. all kind of folks, but aretha franklin did a lot of fundraising. >> were any of those people mad at him about the vietnam speech? >> many of them stood behind him. especially harry belafonte, his friend to the end. >> what one thing in this book do you think is the most important thing? >> at all of the tapes of king, not what time is he caugh

and i had always adored harry belafonte. we decided to do one duet called "the path of glory." just felt strongly about it. i just touched his arm. the sponsor went crazy. my star doesn't touch a black man's arm. >> petula clark said, i'm not doing it over, and it is my show and it is going out that way. >> we weren't having any of that nonsense, no way. so it went out the way we wanted it to go out. i didn't really have any other problems with sponsors but that sort of gave me a taste of what could happen. ♪ ♪ a car that's moving fast and clean and strong ♪ ♪ get the leather seats you can't go wrong ♪ >> in the tv business, the '60s was probably about the last decade during which the sponsors had a really iron grip on content. >> brought to you by dash. >> even if they tried to keep tv this white homogenous whole milk product, the world found its way in. it just had to. >> what's the trouble, driver? >> can't you ever remember to bring a silencer? >> it ruins the liner in my suit. >> with "i spy," robert culp and bill cosby were equals. cosby is this pioneer in terms of a blac

. >> reporter: maureen o'hara and harry belafonte just two of the honorees at the governors awards.e big buzz of the night, the box office hit already muscling their way into some serious oscar buzz. >> i'm a big fan of "whiplash." >> really excited to see "fox catcher." >> reporter: praise coming from all angles for "birdman's" michael keaton. >> what's he doing here? >> my old buddy michael keaton was pretty remarkable. >> pulling my hair back. >> extraordinary feat of filmmaking. >> reporter: the academy awards still a mere three months away but already promising that hollywood heat. >> it's going to be a hot season. >> i'm back. >> so now it means that we all have to hit the theaters for the next -- >> i was thinking as i watched that story, there's so many movies i haven't seen. i got to get busy. >> they all release right now so we can start catching up before january. >> we got a couple of months. >> we got a couple of months. i get excited for award season. >> i love award season. it's the only one i make predictions about. paula sits here throwing down teams. >> we'll see i

while everyone else was focused on harry belafonte and martin luther king, we were doing the back story. we also in sncc did some poetry. i call it the poetry of desperation because there are sometimes no other ways to express how you feel. this is one of the poems in bleak mississippi after we have been defeated in atlantic city. i talk about that in "mississippi winter." we took pictures but we never show the real winter of human life. "this winter, black was beautiful and poverty is ugly. what happens when they been together? we did not know." so we marched. it rained a lot. this is the winter of the evictions of striking field workers. old people freezing to death under damp sheets. we came back from atlantic city kral and in powerlessness to start all over again on lowly plantation roads. mississippi in march. at this time, there had been plantation workers evicted because they were involved in voter registration. they organize housed at an abandoned air force base. the government was asked a month to two beforehand if this would be possible. no responses were received from the air

. >> singer, actor, and activist harry belafonte travels to the most violent places in the world.goal is to speak to people who are the creators of and the resisters to the violence. >> with his inspirational words belafonte gives each inmate a personal challenge. >> your failure is my failure. your success is my success. somewhere where you go, you carry a responsibility and the destiny of my children and my children's children and their friends and their community. and they can either look at you as someone as a group to be shunned or they can look at you as an example of how to take the worst cards dealt in life and turn the deck around and make it your game and play a winning hand every time out. [ applause ] >> get the community's focus on something it can have faith in, and for that institution to then move to the outside world and says you must look in a very different way at how the prison population is being treated. i think it's a great opportunity. >>> next on "lockup" -- inmates in the l.a. county jail get back their freedom. will you help us find a new house for you a

integrity and and popularity and ended very much when they took his passport away and thank god for harry belafonte and others that held on and martin luther king had a problem at carnegie hall that supported it and most people said don't do it because it is too and populace be associated with the w. e. b. du bois and so many others that continued to push him and he is one of my grand hero's. at high levels in his case and in their case and in my case i like to aspire to the type of person they were. and ella baker is one of the greatest democratic activists of the 20th century, executive director of the christian leadership conference, executive director of student nonviolent coordinating committee. marvin licking, andrew young and others and carmichael bob, diane nash, ellen baker, competing the charismatic model, the messianic leader, moses lake leader, she said no. i want grassroots indigenous horses like we have in ferguson and the popes and alexis templetons, right now in the midst of unbelievable tension, in many ways exemplify ella baker's concern about indigenous leader should as opposed t

but continued to hold onto integrity despite the popularity they took his passport away and harry belafonte's held on issues supported emerging gain was the very poor -- powerful speech the most people said it was too popular to be associated with them but thank god for those who continue to push w.e.b. du bois he is like john cole train. [laughter] with that high-level and in their case it is genius. >> host: who is elevator? >> with the biggest activism of the 20th century and the executive director. but then with the polls in the templeton is the right now and then mix of unbelievable tension they would exemplify the leadership from the leader coming from the outside. >> host: cornel west what about barack obama? mimics certainly there is no obama with his brilliance and charisma to win the presidency without that black prophetic fired to expose lies and tell the truth to bear witness in a courageous way but he moves through the political system it is true for the black congressional caucus and once you make the move on the inside to have to make choice drones' pursues new drones are wall