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[Man] Yes.
Rolling sound.
Quiet.
(Audience applauding)
(Brassy music)
[Announcer] From New York, "The Tonight Show,"
starring Johnny Carson.
And now, here's
the fabulous Harry Belafonte.
Here he comes!
(Audience applauding)
(Brassy music)
♪ The strong gets more
♪ While the weak ones fade
♪ Empty pockets don't ever make the grade ♪
I found out about that week from Harry Belafonte.
I went over to his home
and all of a sudden, effortlessly,
he started talking about this week of television
and "The Tonight Show."
And I'm thinking, wait a minute,
Harry Belafonte hosted a week of "The Tonight Show?"
What?
What, how did I not know this?
- That was probably the most revolutionary move
that mainstream television could have done at the time.
♪ That's right the woman is smarter ♪
♪ That's right ♪
- I write about TV, I write about politics.
I should have known about it.
Why is this history lost to us?
♪ That's right ♪
Harry Belafonte takes an existing white institution
in American culture and he turns it into
something that represents his world,
that it should be multicultural,
that it should be politically engaged.
What Harry Belafonte did,
he combined politics and entertainment.
Like a forerunner to "The Daily Show"
and the Stephen Colbert show.
Is that a fancy way of saying I told you so?
(Audience laughs)
(Calypso music)
I mean, this is early 1968.
The nation was really in crazy upheaval.
There was increasing and very appropriate Black anger.
And Harry exposed you as a white person,
speaking as a white person,
to this vibrant world where Black people
and white people met as equals.
This was a talented, intelligent, sophisticated,
passionate social activist of a Black man
in that chair that has, through the years,
been the seat of white males.
My parents allowed me to stay up late.
They said, you need to see this.
I guarantee you, my grandmother had her three kids
sitting in the living room watching,
even though they should have been in bed.
It was something that was really inspiring,
especially to a lot of Black people who were watching,
who had not seen themselves necessarily represented
in that way, in that American institution
that is "The Tonight Show".
Harry Belafonte at 11 o'clock late night
was saying, we're here, we're Americans.
We're part of this, we're not going anywhere.
Y'all brought us, now we're here.
So, get in your bed.
Let me be the last thing you see before you go to sleep.
Mr. Belafonte, would you like to look at
your guest list from that week?
I'd love to see it.
Oh, my God.
I had all these people?
(Bright music)
When I was there I was a bit overawed by the whole thing.
(Bright music)
It was so seldom in the '60s that people of color
were invited into the homes of, you know,
television viewers everywhere.
(Bright music)
First time on "The Tonight Show," I'm scared.
I'm sitting between Harry Belafonte and Paul Newman.
That was a special night.
I knew I was with the biggies that night.
Me, too. (Laughs)
As they say, stepping in high cotton. (Laughs)
(Bright music)
You see how pivotal this week was
because you're watching this man bring together
all of his brothers and sisters in the movement
and say we deserve a space and we deserve to be here
and we deserve to talk about these things.
(Drum rolling)
(Brassy music)
[Announcer] From New York, "The Tonight Show,"
starring Johnny Carson.
(Audience applauding)
"The Tonight Show" was one of the most powerful
platforms of communication in the world.
If there's anything you don't see, just ask for it.
(Bright music)
Okay, we have, fine, a gentleman.
Johnny Carson was the rage of the evening.
Thank you, love you all.
If anybody was up after 10 o'clock,
they were watching "The Tonight Show."
One, two.
(Bright jazz)
Jump in anyway.
Yah!
(Audience laughing)
Mr. Woody Allen.
(Bright jazz)
Carson would often mention this on the air.
"Hey, I know you're in bed when you're watching me."
And it's the most unique of frames to watch television
was between your feet.
You're taking them not just in your home,
but actually into your bedroom.
The birth rate in this country has
dropped appreciably and I'd like to feel
that my show is partly responsible.
Carson was this Midwestern very,
sort of easy to take kind of host.
Hi, folks.
(Audience laughs)
He was as average of an American
as you could possibly get.
[Announcer] We'll be right back.
[Harry] It was part of his appeal.
He was just the kid next door.
Never seen a human cell.
Johnny Carson helped define what late night would be.
Early on the 1950s, '60s, as we really started
to see these interview programs with Jack Paar
and all these sorts of people...
See, they don't understand what, uh,
how we do the show.
We just keep talking
with no script. I know.
It's agony.
(Audience laughs)
You would get to see celebrities
as you've never seen them before.
You get to see them uncensored.
So that started making late night really special
and hallowed ground.
Why did you go into politics?
I think that as an interested citizen
in the United States,
I cannot think of a greater privilege
than serving in the House or the Senate.
[Announcer] Tonight!
[Ron Simon] When "The Tonight Show" first began,
it was a comedy show and Steve Allen became the first host.
This is uh, kind of a mild little show.
I don't expect you to say, "Boy, what a program!"
Carson takes over in October of 1962
and it really is a whole
different approach to the show.
[Bill] He managed to weave in more contemporary news
than anybody had tried before.
Senator, Mrs. Kennedy are expecting their tenth child.
I understand Ethel Kennedy is demanding
a civilian review board.
(Audience laughs)
All of that would first be the subject of a monologue.
And then often guests would talk about it.
Our bloodshed will be in our racial situation,
not with Russia or Khrushchev or any other country.
But you probably, as most people do in the world today,
have some feelings on the Vietnam situation.
[Bill] And the interesting thing about
"The Tonight Show"
was that the guests stayed on the couch.
They didn't just make their appearance and leave.
So they sat together.
I wish now I'd have been honest.
(All laughing)
So, "The Tonight Show" now becomes
kind of a national gathering place at night.
And whatever's going on in pop culture,
whatever's going on in politics,
obviously what's going on in the news,
it was a place for all those things to come together
in an entertaining way.
11:30 at night, Eastern, was the most segregated hour
in America because white people were watching
white Johnny Carson in their white homes.
Black people were doing it separately.
Little Mister 1968.
Let's welcome him.
(Audience applauding)
Tell me, 1968, what can we expect from you?
Well, there's riots, brutality, poverty, sit-ins,
overpopulation, famine.
Hmm, I see.
You want to hear the bad news now? (All laugh)
Hi, this is Johnny Carson.
As you know this is the usual starting time
for "The Tonight Show,"
but because of the critical war situation in Vietnam,
NBC for the next 15 minutes is going to bring you
a special news program via satellite.
[Newsreader] On the morning of January 31st,
both sides claimed victor in the Tet Offensive,
but 1100 American soldiers lie dead.
(Protesters shouting)
Seven young and earnest protestors
burned draft cards on the steps of...
[King] In 1968, there were many Americas.
There was Black America and White America.
(Funky music)
[Announcer] For his running mate,
Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge.
There was establishment America,
anti-establishment America.
And the culture was chaotic.
The culture was complicated.
The culture was divisive.
(Funky music)
The tension in the air of 1968 couldn't be ignored,
no matter how many blinders that you chose to
put in front of your eyes.
All kinds of changes were pushed through.
It's the time when women said,
listen, we're not just this.
We want to run these companies.
We're not playing with you anymore.
It's the year of the afro.
Boom!
Natural hair.
Change.
Things were no longer going to be the status quo.
(Upbeat music)
♪ I never seen no road other than the one from here ♪
♪ Well we do it to others
♪ Before them others do it to us ♪
It was that time of protests.
The Black community had risen up with righteous indignation.
We could no longer tolerate the racial indiscretions
that were being heaped upon us.
As performers, we felt a need
to begin to do more than just sing.
We had to have a point of view and we had to speak out.
♪ Highway men don't have to fight ♪
♪ For the thing they called a human right ♪
When you look at the late '60s,
the exposure that white Americans
were getting on the news
was the covering of the civil rights marches
and the civil rights movement that was happening.
♪ Oh time
But we were still watching shows like "Bonanza,"
"Beverly Hillbillies," "I Dream of Jeannie."
Very, very white television shows.
We were really seeing these pretty trivial depictions
of the Old West, depictions of suburban families.
Television shows had a always very difficult
relationship with reality
and there were a lot of, we'll say fantasy sitcoms
that really sort of avoided race
and what was going on in the country.
My personal experiences have been that there is
an enormous reluctance on the part of the media
to expose Black life as it really is.
Hollywood reflects the mood of the nation.
It reflects our politics.
It reflects our culture.
It reflects our hopes and aspirations.
And it lies a lot about who we are.
None of us thought we were going to be in the future.
If you were a sci-fi person, which I am,
You never saw us represented
in the future times of America.
For what we are about to receive, we give thanks.
[Whoopi] We were never there.
We were never at the beach blanket bingo.
Hello?
We hear that the girls are all over at your house.
[Whoopi] We were never where the boys were.
We just weren't there, we weren't represented.
Television was a medium that was still
figuring out its relationship to power in a lot of ways.
TV wasn't crossover medium.
There were a few Black stars in television at the time
who had been able to kind of rise to the top.
Harry Belafonte was one of those.
♪ Cannonball come to the judgment ♪
♪ Fare thee well fare ye well ♪
♪ Here's that great gift of morning ♪
♪ Fare thee well fare ye well ♪
♪ Here's that great gift of morning ♪
♪ Fare thee well fare ye well ♪
(Calypso music)
♪ I say let us put man and a woman together ♪
♪ To find out which one is smarter ♪
Harry Belafonte was a huge celebrity at the time,
who produced record setting album after album.
First performer to sell over a million copies
of a single album.
(Rhythmic music)
♪ Woo hawk eyed woman is going out ♪
♪ Every day
What Mr. Belafonte wound up doing was taking the art form
of calypso music.
♪ Won't be back for many a day ♪
And making it mainstream for America's taste.
♪ Had to leave a little girl in Kingston town ♪
In the West Indies, there are many languages
that have invaded those islands.
I mean, the French, the English, the Spanish.
And when it's all put together,
it comes out in a strange tongue we call Patois.
Just say after me, "I wonder why nobody don't like me."
I wonder why nobody don't like me.
By George, I think he's got it.
Yes!
Whoop!
♪ I wonder why nobody don't like me ♪
♪ Or is it the fact that I'm ugly ♪
♪ I wonder why nobody don't like me ♪
♪ Or is it the fact that I'm ugly ♪
Harry was also a movie star.
He was a household name.
Black and white.
In your heart, deep down inside,
don't you still think of us as slaves?
♪ At night I tell you people
[Joan] We saw him in iconic films like "Carmen Jones,"
"Bright Road," "Odds Against Tomorrow,"
"Island in the Sun."
There are other countries.
My skin is my country.
Today we take it for granted,
but in the 1950s, that was a radical idea
to have a Black artist have a white fan base
at a time in which there was still legal segregation.
(Audience cheering)
♪ Everybody when the saints
♪ Go marching in ♪ Oh when the saints go ♪
If you look at some of his early television
musical sort of variety shows,
I mean, there was just a fascination and an appeal
that you couldn't find it anywhere else on television.
♪ Not so beautiful
♪ Not one so beautiful
♪ Like my love is
I know when those women,
whatever nationality they were,
when they saw Harry,
it was all about (Pants)
'Cause sexy's sexy no matter what.
♪ When you see her
He was one of the most important and trailblazing
cross-media superstars of the 20th Century.
There are many sides to the legend of Harry Belafonte.
Singer, actor, activist.
As artists, we rejoice in the knowledge
that human experience has no color
and we believe that artists have a valuable function
in any society since it is the artist
who reveal the society to itself.
My father was a political person
before he became an artist.
His mother was a political person.
His environment that he grew up in and was exposed to
was political.
He wanted to take every opportunity that he could
to bring forth the civil rights movement.
He always used whatever platform he had
as an opportunity to educate and motivate
and activate audiences.
Our cause in America is an honorable cause.
And ofttimes, when we are in the midst of the struggle
for our liberation, we sometimes feel that
it is more than we can bear.
Rosa Parks got me into this.
Went down to meet her and I came back
and then one day I got a phone call.
"Mr. Belafonte?"
I said, "Yes."
They said, "You may not know me,
"there's no reason for you to,
"except that I need to talk to you."
And I said, "Fine."
"My name is Martin Luther King Jr."
He said, "The things you have said and done,
"I really believe you could be an important component
"to this adventure that I'm embarking on."
And listening to what he had to say,
I knew that forever I'd be in his service.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Nobel Peace Prize winner,
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
(Audience applauding)
Once I took up with him,
my life never went anywhere else but there.
Not only is Harry a great artist,
he is a great humanitarian.
No performing artists in the United States or in the world
has raised as much money for the civil rights movement
as Harry Belafonte.
I respond as often as possible to Dr. King
because I believe the salvation of America
and our potential
is in our capacity to deal humanistically
and non-violently with our difficulties.
People who worked with Johnny at the time would say
he was conversant with the civil rights movement.
I can't sit here and say I understand, because we can't.
He understood many of the issues,
but he was not comfortable enough to say
I'm going to do a week of shows
about what's going on in the country.
So when I was out in Las Vegas,
I did the thing with the audience, you know,
and the questions, I get questions,
you know, political, what do you think of so and so.
And I found out that no matter which side you go,
you got to end up, if you're a straight entertainer,
losing half your audience.
He as an entertainer did not feel like
getting up on the soapbox.
But he certainly supported the other entertainers
who were doing that.
I also admire Marlon Brando for his conscience
as an American and his moral commitment
when he believes in something.
Will you welcome, please, Mr. Marlon Brando.
So I think he thought,
I'm going to have a guest host come on
and the guest host can address
what I think are serious issues.
I do think Carson was trying to make a statement.
How can you not talk about all the things that are going on
in the craziest year in American history?
Even my Midwestern, middle of the country audience,
they need to see this.
This is only six years into Johnny Carson's tenure,
that he did that.
Goodnight.
See you tomorrow.
So it wasn't doing it from the safe harbor of
I'm the King of Late Night.
He was still fairly new in the job.
But it was in his head that Harry Belafonte
was the right guy.
(audience applauding)
I said no at first.
Because I couldn't do what Johnny did.
I can't tell jokes and whatnot.
♪ I don't want nobody ♪
We know Harry Belafonte had been burned
by television before.
In 1959, he had this special called
"Tonight with Belafonte."
It was fantastic, it won an Emmy.
And the sponsor, which was Revlon,
actually offered him an ongoing series after that.
He called it "New York, 19."
♪ Well if it's so I don't want to be a monkey ♪
♪ I'll go to sleep a mule or donkey ♪
♪ My brother said that he will come back a hog ♪
♪ Not Harry I think I'll be a bedbug ♪
The first episode ran in 1960 to rave reviews.
But when he started to plan the next episode,
the sponsor called him in
and had a problem with the fact that Harry used
multiracial casts.
And the sponsor told him pick a Black cast,
but none of this mixing.
And Harry walked away.
Thank you for being with us.
See you around.
[Gina] My father didn't always trust
what the outcomes of a certain opportunity might bring.
And so he turned a lot of things down.
Tonight we take a look at Negro humor in America.
We call it "A Time for Laughter."
If it wasn't going to be in an inclusive way
that he envisioned,
both racially, but I think most importantly,
artistically, let alone politically,
he didn't want that to be part of his legacy.
♪ I believe that's a bird dog ♪
(all laughing)
♪ That sounds like a rabbit dog ♪
♪ Woof woof woof
♪ Oh that's an old Civil Rights chaser ♪
Being on television, reaching a lot of people,
and having this amazing opportunity
that might only come once in your entire lifetime.
And Harry Belafonte had to be convinced.
It was Johnny who put me at ease and said
we just want you to be who you are.
I said in order to be who I am,
I'd have to have guests on
that share some of my beliefs.
He agreed to that condition,
with the understanding that the network had the right
to say no to anybody.
But they wanted me to submit my list.
After a little bit of wrangling,
they gave him control of the guest list,
which was a huge deal.
(brassy music)
So was there trepidation?
I'm sure there was trepidation.
[Whoopi] And who knows what's gonna happen?
Is he going to have, you know, a mix of people on?
Is it gonna be Black people and White people?
Does he have restrictions?
When you see pictures of the guests,
they didn't just pass each other.
They knew each other.
So I envisioned Mr. Belafonte
making half those calls himself,
saying, "Hey, I need you to come on by here
"and do this show."
So he was probably his booker and the host of the show.
[Interviewer] Do you remember how it felt
to be on the show?
I hardly knew what I was yesterday, (laughs)
much less 1968.
But, wow.
That's like, some nice company.
Is he here?
Floyd Bouncer is here, friends.
(audience cheering)
When you were in Selma, Alabama
All of these people, not only were great artists,
but some of them were also great thinkers.
[Paul Newman] It's the biggest feeling
I ever had in my life
to be actively involved in being part of my own times.
He had all types of people on that week,
but like the sheer volume of activists that he had on
is mind-blowing.
Especially in such a political hotbed at the time.
Freedom!
♪ He fights with missiles and with spears ♪
The fact that he was able to fill in the space
with people that had substance was amazing to me.
And to use that platform,
that's unprecedented for the times.
I wanted to bring a political dimension to the evening
that was not quite "The Tonight Show" thing.
I want to make this announcement.
So I said, if anybody wants to hear
what Dr. King has to say
and Bobby Kennedy has to say,
it'll be good for your ratings.
They were considered the spokespersons
for the mood of the nation.
There's a story of somebody with the network asking,
"Dr. King isn't going to talk about that civil rights stuff,
"is he?"
It was a silly question.
We've got him here.
What would you like him to do, sing a song?
Ladies and gentlemen, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
(audience applauding)
How old were you when you started the
Montgomery Alabama Montgomery, Alabama bus strike?
Well, I was 27 at that time, that was back in 1956.
Can I ask one other question?
(gentle music)
After this uh, word from your local station.
(audience applauding)
Harry had an agenda.
And he had the people to back it up.
The winner is Sidney Poitier.
(audience cheering)
[Wesley] Harry had Sidney Poitier,
who by '68 was the biggest movie star in Hollywood.
There's a good angel looking after me somewhere.
Sidney was pushing back against the type
that the industry assumed he was and needed him to be.
I'm so pleased to meet you.
I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Drayton.
I am artist,
a man,
American.
[Wesley] When he makes "In the Heat of the Night,"
he's playing a cop.
(slaps landing)
And at some point he winds up slapping
this old white man in the face.
That was the year of the smack!
(laughs) Heard all through the neighborhood.
You saw it.
[Whoopi] When that man smacks Sidney...
[Sheriff] Oh, I saw it.
And Sidney smacked him back?
Change! (laughs)
Just the way Sidney Poitier was changing movies
at the time,
another one of Harry's guests that week, Bill Cosby,
was also changing television.
(brassy music)
- He wasn't doing a thing
that you had seen Black men do before.
He was on "I Spy" with Robert Culp,
they were both equals.
He was playing an undercover agent alongside this white man.
Hello, sir.
Now!
(gun fires)
And he was a very important emblem
of integration in this country.
Yes, sir.
Now, that's what I like!
Let the women work, too.
In the late sixties, television was shifting
in this powerful way.
It was no longer the terrain of just white people.
You can get rid of the uniform.
It makes me feel a little self conscious.
You should know how it makes me feel.
So now for the first time,
white people who probably never even came in contact
with Black people were now in contact with us
in their homes.
Tomorrow night, my guests are Robert Goulet,
George Kirby, Aretha Franklin, Buffy Sainte-Marie.
My job was to bring the best that Black America
had to offer.
Nipsey?
[Nipsey] Yes?
I want to thank Mr. Harry Singer for permitting you
to come up tonight and to be on this show.
Never mind, Harry Singer, thank me.
[Harry] And to put us out in one concentrated period,
which all of this magnificence burst out.
(audience applauding)
(static buzzing)
The shocking thing is that through 1971,
NBC simply recorded over and over, reused its tape.
Night after night.
Oh, this show's over, let's just record on this same tape
the next night.
That's one thing I could not believe.
You know, whether it's to save money or space.
I mean, they were big two inch tapes back then.
It shocked Johnny Carson when he found out about it
and it shocked the staff of the entire show.
- My first month at "The Tonight Show,"
I kind of came in with hopeful expectations
of watching all the old footage of anything
that's ever been shot in the 30 Rock building.
(Questlove playing drums)
However, when I looked on the video database,
there were only two episodes hosted by Harry Belafonte.
So I guess no one ever thought of reruns.
So all of this is lost to history
except these two half hours,
one with Dr. King, one with Bobby Kennedy.
And five minutes with folksinger Leon Bibb.
There's a handful of shows that I, as a curator,
would love to find.
The week that Harry Belafonte hosted "Tonight Show"
is one of the gems that we're missing.
- When I discovered this week, I wrote an article about it
and I became borderline obsessed with it.
I started searching for what might exist.
I started interviewing people
and I got introduced to this man named Phil Gries.
(bright music)
[Announcer] This is News 12 Long Island.
Now, the morning edition.
The time right now is 6:18 and
we're rewinding some television history.
There is a collection of early TV audio in Old Westbury
and Christina's there now.
Christina.
- Phil Gries has collected thousands of audio tapes
of old TV shows from the '60s.
Phil, tell us, how did you get started?
How many tapes do you have?
- Well, there are about 2,000 programs
that I collected over the years.
(gentle piano music)
This is the Harry Belafonte tape from February 5th and 6th
at 25 minutes.
This would be the quarter inch tape.
This was only audio.
The first experience with audio recording television
was when I was 14 years old
and I recorded things that nobody else has.
I taped a lot of "Tonight Shows."
I recorded the first two nights with Harry Belafonte.
(gentle music)
[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Harry Belafonte.
(audience applauding)
So thanks to these audio tapes,
we have a real sense of what the show was like.
You get to hear Harry sing a song.
He apparently opened every episode with a song
and we hear him sing the folk song "Rock Island Line."
♪ The Rock Island line is a mighty good road ♪
♪ Oh, the Rock Island line is the road to ride ♪
I'm regretful that I didn't record that whole week,
because it was the first time
that an Afro American was asked to host
five consecutive days of "The Tonight Show."
[Harry] I am very, very self conscious about the fact
that I am in this seat of power.
It does give you a feeling of power.
But I tell you, my greatest comfort
is to get up and do the thing that I love most.
We have a film that I would like to show you.
One of the things that stands out to me
was that he showed home movies
of him and his family on vacation.
(gentle music)
[Harry] People have asked me all the time,
what do I do with my spare time?
This is what I do.
[Man] Watch the monitors in the studio.
(gentle music)
(audience laughing)
[Harry] That's my wife and that's my 10 year old son.
And that's my daughter.
(gentle music)
This is a young man by the name of Ken White,
who was the United States water ski trick skiing champion.
Look at those muscles!
He would perform for about a month at a time
in those days at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
One of the perks of his service to the hotel
was that they gave us a yacht every other day.
And we would go out on Lake Mead and water ski
and he would also bring a lot of folks.
Celebrities, activists on the boat.
[Harry] It wasn't just seeing us as Black people
who were in show business,
but seeing Black people living their lives
in ways that were more than just being a performer.
Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Lena Horne.
(audience applauding)
Lena, I never ceased to be amazed at the fact
that you are a grandmother.
[Lena] The thing that kept me
from coming apart at the seams
was the fact that I wanted to stay married
and I wanted to raise my children.
And in a very tough, competitive business.
♪ Ever since that day
♪ When the world
Well, I guess you've gotten right to the top
in every single phase of show business there is,
Movies and records, radio, television, now the stage.
Well, yes, and I'm very happy now on the stage.
♪ That I'm beholding ♪
♪ A vision
Lena Horne was a pioneering African American superstar
who had been very, very outspoken politically.
I don't feel like a movie star particularly,
but I'm a New Yorker and what happens in the South
happens to my state and for my state, too.
It's a communal effort, I'm sure.
Lena Horne became very active in politics
in the early civil rights movement
and she even found herself blacklisted.
In 1963, Lena was invited to a secret civil rights meeting
with then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy.
She was with Harry, the author James Baldwin,
playwright Lorraine Hansberry,
and some younger Black civil rights workers.
It did not go well.
Bobby Kennedy was appalled by some of their suggestions
about the measures that the US should take
around race, especially in the South
and the activists and the artists were appalled
at his lack of deep understanding
of the extent of the problem of racism in the country
where he was the chief law enforcement officer.
Will you please welcome Senator Robert Kennedy?
(audience applauding)
I ride up and down in my building
every day in the elevator and I see a man
that says he's Johnny Carson.
So it's great to see you finally.
It's not, really?
(audience laughing and applauding)
For the most part, my father's relationship
to Robert Kennedy had been adversarial,
given who Robert Kennedy really was
before he made the choice to learn more
about the plight of poor people.
(gentle music)
[Harry] Well, when we first got word that Bobby Kennedy
had been appointed as Attorney General
for the United States of America,
many of us saw that as an unfortunately dark choice.
With his record of anti-liberalism,
with his class interests and having had
no real history or background with peoples of color.
Dr. King, upon listening to all of us
and how we criticized Bobby said
go out and find his moral center.
And we reached out to to him,
gave him opportunity to look at
what was happening to the poor white children
and in the Black community.
And wed him to our cause.
My father's advice was to actually go to the South.
You see him coming upon a young boy
leaning against a building and asks had he had breakfast.
The boy very warmly told him he didn't.
And I remember Bobby Kennedy going to him
and putting his hand against the boy's cheek.
I saw in that moment that Bobby Kennedy
was now deeply touched and moved.
He showed a deeper sense of his own humanity.
He came back with new eyes and a new perspective.
I think my father felt an opportunity
to create intimacy there, in conversation
and to get his feedback.
I think that there are many areas
in which we have problems in the United States.
There is this great wealth that I talked about
and yet there's great poverty.
There are speeches made about the fact
that we're going to treat everybody equally,
and yet we don't treat everybody equally.
He came on and spoke to issues of race
through the eyes of Black children.
Well, then I was out in Watts
and I went by to see some young men
and one of them was talking about the fact
that he lived at home with his mother
and nobody ever cleaned the garbage out.
He said, "They can draft me and send me off
"to fight for this country at the age of 18,
"but they won't let me complain about
"the garbage out front beside my mother's house at 19."
He spent a good number of minutes talking about
what he saw America's future to be.
If we didn't, perhaps, tell untruths about ourselves,
then I think that er,
and faced up to reality,
then I think our country would be much better off
and our people would have much more confidence
in those of us who are public officials
and in our government as a whole.
(audience applauding)
Bobby Kennedy became sort of this spokesman
for civil rights and the whole progressive movement
and the antiwar movement.
This war has been handed down and has been
the delinquent child of a number of presidents.
Absolutely, including the administration in which
I was a member and served.
You had the Tet Offensive in January of 1968,
where people finally see this is going terribly
for Americans.
It's war is a disaster.
The fact that there are those who've been killed
who are innocently involved in this great struggle.
Senator, there are increasing reports out of Washington
that your advisors are now telling you
that you should run against President Johnson this year.
Johnson had become extremely unpopular with young people.
The war is going so badly that he's vulnerable.
I have no plans.
I have no plans to change the statement
that I've already made.
Will you endorse--
[Bill] There was all kinds of speculation about
would he move on to challenge Lyndon Johnson
for the presidency?
It was a massive story.
(dramatic music)
I had tried to get Bobby to use "The Tonight Show"
to say that he was running for the presidency
and that I would have had, like you journalists say,
I'd had a scoop!
You said only those who dare to fail greatly
can ever achieve greatly.
Do you believe that in 1968, in the coming elections,
that we will have a choice to back a candidate
who will dare greatly?
(audience applauding)
I think you were nice to do that, weren't you?
(audience laughing)
[Man] In this campaign year, political figures are
throwing their hats into the ring.
Bobby Kennedy definitely will...
Come on, Bobby, make up your mind.
(audience laughing)
[Announcer] It's "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour."
Our government is asking us as citizens
to refrain from traveling to foreign lands.
- Okay, all you guys in Vietnam, come on home.
(audience applauding)
[Harry] Over the last couple of years I've come to know
and come to respect two young men
who have honored me by being my guests this evening.
They're quite popular and quite controversial.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Smothers Brothers.
(audience applauding)
♪ Now Ho Chi Minh sure aint no friend ♪
♪ That's plain for all to see ♪
♪ And I know someone's gotta fight over there ♪
♪ But why does it have to be me ♪
The Smothers Brothers became very political
and they wanted to deal with issues
that were happening in society.
Look, what can the president do
to make people want to stay in this country?
Well, he could quit.
(audience laughing)
[Bill] The Smothers Brothers were in the middle
of this massive controversy with CBS
because of their opposition to the war.
They would be doing jokes and mocking the president
that you didn't see anywhere else.
My fellow citizens.
Because they were directly criticizing Lyndon Johnson,
he wound up calling the head of CBS, William Paley,
at three o'clock in the morning and saying,
"You gotta stop this."
Paley did tell those guys to knock it off.
The Smothers Brothers said,
"This is the show we're going to do.
"We're not gonna back off."
Harry Belafonte had them on.
[Harry] What are some of the jokes
that CBS will not permit you to tell on the air?
[Smothers] They've been kind enough
to let us come on this show
and do some of our distasteful material.
(audience laughing)
♪ Make love not war
I think what was interesting about the week
and something that appealed to me personally,
even at that age, was this mix of art and politics.
(crowd cheering)
♪ Chain chain chain
Throughout her career in the 1960s,
Aretha Franklin was not afraid to make both entertainment
and political music and to tie those things together
in a way that would be forever transformative
to popular music.
♪ Oh you're treating me cruel ♪
♪ Chain chain chain
Just one month before "The Tonight Show"
with Harry Belafonte, Aretha Franklin released her album,
"Lady Soul."
"Chain of Fools," "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman,"
"Since You've Been Gone," "Ain't No Way."
This is just one month before "The Tonight Show,"
so Aretha Franklin was at the height of her
creative and commercial success.
She is selling more records than any woman
in music at that time and still,
and she's using that money to fund the movement,
to fund the activism.
♪ I believe
♪ I do believe
♪ People get ready ♪ There's a train coming ♪
You're so seduced by her voice
that sometimes her activism is seen as a second tier.
("Respect" by Aretha Franklin)
♪ What you want
A song like "Respect," which we all know
and associate with Aretha Franklin,
that became a huge political anthem for so many things,
including the feminist movement,
but also civil rights movement.
[Dr King] Tonight we are gonna have a great night
in the city of Philadelphia
and I know you've heard of Harry Belafonte
and Aretha Franklin and all of these other
great and outstanding artists.
She was very close to Dr. Martin Luther King.
Detroit is proud of its native daughter.
[Jason] He was willing to work with her a lot
to try to get his message to a wider group of people.
[Presenter] Do hereby proclaim Friday, February the 16th
as Aretha Franklin Day.
Martin Luther King understood,
coming from the Black church,
how important music was to conveying messages.
And so Martin Luther King cultivated
these deep relationships with artists
who he saw as being key and vital
to the spreading of his message.
So many artists are willing to stand up
on these particular issues
and it represents a real and genuine courage.
And not only does he have the right to take a stand,
but a moral responsibility to do it.
(guitar strumming)
I was a college girl writing songs
that I thought audiences really deserved to hear
because who, how are they going to find out
about the things that politicians and businessmen
are trying to cover up?
This is called "Welcome Emigrante,"
which means welcome immigrants.
And it's pretty silly for...
maybe a first or second or third generation American
to be making fun of and refusing help to
newly arrived immigrants when the fact is
they haven't been here that long themselves.
♪ And they came from far away ♪
♪ To a land they didn't know ♪
♪ The same way you do my friends ♪
When Harry invited me to come on "The Tonight Show,"
of course I was thrilled.
Harry was like the heart and brains of a lot of things.
He always brought people from indigenous communities
all over the world onto stage.
And he brought those cultures to audiences in cities,
in big fancy halls, who otherwise would never have
been able to hear those groups.
♪ Now the girls up at Cripple Creek about half-grown ♪
♪ Jump on a boy
Harry gave me the idea that you could be
an entertaining entertainer,
even if I'm doing hard-hitting material.
You're not trying to scold or hurt people,
you're trying to give them something
that otherwise they wouldn't have known.
When it came to discuss what I was going to play and sing,
I suggested "Now That the Buffalo's Gone"
♪ Remember the times
♪ That you have held your head high ♪
"Now That the Buffalo's Gone," which is a song about
the building of the Kinzua Dam,
which is a government project that's taken the land
away from the Seneca Indians.
America needed to see
what we were struggling about as people of color.
♪ It's here and it's now you must help us dear man ♪
♪ Now that the buffalo's gone ♪
Art without content is not art.
The truth of the matter is that I quit being a pop star.
You can't go there and sing protest songs
and sell a million, it ain't going to happen.
I knew that I had to go find an art
that would tell what life should be.
And nothing did that better than to be in the folk world.
♪ Gotta pull this timber before the sun go down ♪
♪ Get it cross the river before the boss come round ♪
♪ Drag it on down that dusty road ♪
♪ Come on Jerry let's tote that load ♪
In the history of folk music, it's often seen as a kind of
white music, but that's not actually true at all.
You have to remember,
folk music represented a kind of political engagement,
especially for African Americans,
that a lot of R&B music didn't at the time.
R&B music, while it was incredible music
and it's fun and exciting and danceable,
was not necessarily explicitly political.
The folk singers had much more latitude.
♪ When we got there the hills were steep ♪
♪ It would make a tender person weep ♪
Leon Bibb was a southern folksinger.
He was not a household name,
but he was somebody that Harry Belafonte felt
could make an impact if he was in front of a wide audience.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
America was awakened to a whole new group
of Black artists they never heard before.
And Leon was one of them.
Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friend, Mr. Leon Bibb.
There was a song called "Suzanne."
And I just adored that song.
♪ Suzanne takes you down
♪ To a place by the river
♪ You could hear the boats go by ♪
♪ You can spend the night forever ♪
When Leon Bibb came on, I suggested to him
that he sing that song
and it blew everybody away.
♪ Suzanne takes you down
♪ To a place by the river
♪ You can hear the boats go by ♪
♪ You can spend the night forever ♪
I remember getting that call.
God, it was a thrill.
♪ And night grows sweeter
The guests that night were Leon Bibb,
me, Freda Payne,
Paul Newman, Nipsey Russell, Aaron and Freddie
and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
Dr. King, how old are you?
- I'm 39 years old.
In fact, I was 39 just three weeks ago.
[Man] What's the date?
Do you know that everybody sitting on this panel--
The 15th of January.
[Harry] Do you believe--
You're a young fellow, what are you talking about?
[Harry] Everybody on this panel is older than you are.
Wait a minute!
(all laughing)
There's no room here for black protest.
(all laughing)
The idea that you'd have Harry Belafonte...
talking to Nipsey Russell.
Here's a little news.
If you think that medicine has to taste bad
in order to be good, just watch.
To have Martin Luther King talking to Paul Newman
where a white person is a minority on the stage.
Come on, that's crazy!
Paul Newman, one of the great actors of the time,
very celebrated internationally,
had never done a talk show before.
I know that all of the artists
who sit on this panel tonight feel very strongly
about the war in Vietnam and we oppose it.
We also have been through the years
as committed to civil rights as you could possibly be.
I know I've put this question to Paul before,
but Paul, how do you handle some people who say to you
that as a top star, living the luxury of American life,
that you could turn your back against the nation?
What do you do?
You give up your citizenship because you've become an actor?
I remember the night with Dr. King.
Unlike the coverage that was in the papers
and on TV, too,
this was a different side of Dr. King.
He was relaxed, he was smiling.
Well, I'm delighted to be here, Harry
and I'll tell you,
one of the reasons I'm so happy to be here.
I flew out of Washington this afternoon
and as soon as we started out, they notified us
that the plane had mechanical difficulties
and I don't want to give you an impression
that as a Baptist preacher
I don't have faith in God in the air,
it's simply that I've had more experience
with Him on the ground.
(audience laughing)
I was kind of amused that he knew how to get laughter.
Which is something that you don't see in his speeches
because he's so serious.
My thing was like, "Oh, he can tell a good joke."
What do you have in store for us this summer?
I feel that we are in the midst
of the most critical period in our nation
and the economic problem
is probably the most serious problem confronting
the Negro community and poor people, generally.
His new project that very week
was the Poor People's Campaign.
He knew that the civil rights movement itself
would have to give way to something much more profound,
economic rights.
But bringing the people together
in a much more fundamental way
around issues that affected everybody,
regardless of race, class, or color.
The week that Dr. King was on "The Tonight Show,"
he was traveling all over the country
to support the Poor People's Campaign.
It is my hope that we will really stand up
to gain power for poor people.
Black people, Mexican Americans, American Indians,
Puerto Ricans, Appalachian whites, all working together
to solve the problem of poverty.
He got it from all sides.
His own staff said we haven't finished
a Black lib movement in the South.
Now you're saying this campaign is going to have
white coal miners and Mexicans?
You're taking my budget and giving it to white folks?
I think the time has come to bring to bear
the nonviolent direct action movement
on the economic conditions that we face
all over the country.
[Taylor] He finally got his staff preparing
to go up to Washington to start the campaign.
And then the garbage strike in Memphis happened.
A public official orders men to get back to work
and treats them as though they are not men.
That's a racist point of view.
They said we are treated like garbage.
That's where the slogan "I am a man" comes from.
I'm a man, not garbage.
And Dr. King said if this is not what the
Poor People's Campaign is about, nothing is.
We have to go to Memphis.
You are demanding that this city will respect
the dignity of labor.
[Joan] There was a rising Black Power movement.
There was a perception that Dr. King
was not moving fast enough for the younger Black folks
and the Black nationalists.
Certainly Black people in this country
were deeply frustrated by existing Black leadership.
There was really no aggressive voice doing for us
what youth felt should be done.
They were going to become the provocateurs,
they were going to become the radical voice.
Do you think you'll be able to keep it
nonviolent, Dr. King?
Yes, I think so.
I don't have any doubt in my mind about that.
Mr. Carmichael, are you as committed
to the nonviolent approach as Dr. King is?
No, I'm not.
No one in this country is asking
the white community in the South to be nonviolent.
And that, in a sense, is giving them a free license
to go ahead and shoot us at will.
(dramatic music)
Harry would host meetings in his apartment
in which Dr. King would have truce talks.
Harry was somebody who was trusted
by the radical young kids and by Dr. King.
He had this ambassador role.
The week that Dr. King was on "The Tonight Show,"
I don't think anybody in America knew all the strains
that were colliding.
He extended all of the movements that he was involved with
beyond the capacity of any man.
He had denounced the Vietnam War.
The fact is we spend approximately $500,000
to kill each Viet Cong soldier.
While we spend only about $53 a year
for every person categorized as poverty stricken.
The cruel truth is that Dr. King had been
denounced in the media.
New York Times and the Washington Post said
he's trying to be a peace leader,
he should stick to civil rights.
We'll never respect him again.
He was a very beleaguered person
when he came on "The Tonight Show"
because he was having trouble getting people to understand
how all of his messages fit together.
And there was a sense that the zeitgeist had moved past him.
Do you fear for your life?
It was well known that Dr. King was getting death threats
and Dr. King went through a period of being very fearful,
actually, he was only human.
We have lived with this a number of years now,
since we started out in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956.
I had to deal with this problem
because if I moved around, worrying about it,
it would completely immobilize me.
And so I've come to the point that I take this whole matter
very philosophically.
I'm more concerned about doing something for humanity
and what I consider the will of God than about longevity.
Ultimately, it isn't so important how long you live,
the important thing is how well you live.
"The Tonight Show" was definitely his last
major national television appearance.
He didn't have that many national television appearances.
I mean, it's easy to forget
how segregated American media still was in that era.
Dr. King, thank you so much for being here tonight.
(audience applauding)
Goodnight.
Thank you for being here.
(audience applauding)
(brassy music)
What can I say about Harry Belafonte?
He's one of a kind.
Would you welcome Harry Belafonte?
(audience applauding)
Just about a month after Harry's hosting gig,
Johnny Carson had him back on "The Tonight Show"
to talk about it.
Did you have a ball with it?
I caught you a couple of nights,
looked like you were having a great time.
I had a marvelous time.
The grooviest time in the world here
the week that I spent here.
We ended with ratings that were larger than
the ones we opened with
and we opened with the largest numbers
in the history of the show.
I must honestly say that
each and every member of your staff
did everything in the world to make me comfortable.
He took out a full page in Variety,
thanking the entire staff
and all the guests that were on the show
and it did say I enjoyed my "sit-in" on "The Tonight Show."
You had a great week.
Once you lay back and have fun with it,
you can't go too far wrong.
But you never know that in the beginning.
No.
I also got a number of letters protesting
they didn't want to be preached to.
People came there to be entertained.
We consciously put before the public
all of the issues that they saw during the past week...
with the knowledge that they were hearing
things that they would never have heard before.
There were mixed reactions.
There were those people that they've watched the Vietnam War
during dinnertime and you know, by the time it came to
11:30 at night they just wanted to relax.
He willed a world into being for one week.
He really wanted to create this integrated world
and show us how good it could be.
Some people walked in and loved it
and some people slammed the door shut.
For those of you who might not be aware,
there was a, I guess we can term it an incident
that happened during the taping with
Harry and Petula Clark on it.
That was in California, wasn't it?
Yes, out of the NBC studios.
♪ Blessed are the meek they say ♪
♪ They shall win where others lose ♪
Just about a month after Petula Clark appeared
with Harry on "The Tonight Show,"
she invited Harry onto her own special.
♪ Evil will be brought to justice ♪
♪ On the path of glory
"Path of Glory" is a protest song.
It's about these young men going off to war
and in rehearsal, we were both very moved by it.
So when we came to tape it, that emotion showed
and I put my hand on Harry's arm.
♪ Why should man be forced to kill ♪
♪ Why should they be made to die ♪
And that's when all the problems started
with with the sponsor.
Miss Clark reached up and put her right hand on my arm
like this and it...
(audience laughing)
I like that.
(audience laughs)
Not half bad at all, really.
Anyway, uh...
(audience laughs)
Now wait till you see what we're accused of tomorrow.
(audience applauding)
He's touching the white lady.
He's touching, oh, did he just kiss, oh!
You know, it's Petula Clark.
He touched a white lady.
Not supposed to do that.
♪ The car called Plymouth's really made it clear ♪
She was called the Plymouth girl.
The Plymouth representative on the set,
he said "No, no, no, you're not through.
"We have to take the touch out."
They wanted to sell cars in the South, so.
That was a no-no.
My star, that is to say, me,
can't be touching a Black man's arm.
At that point, I turned to Pet Clark and said,
"Look, this is your show, what do you want to do?"
She said, "The touch stays."
I said, "Well, that's it."
In a time when a nation is really struggling for its soul,
you know, on the heels of the president's report
on the riots that took place in the summer,
I believe that all of us have a responsibility
to do everything we can to salvage
the best that's in America,
because there's a great deal that's good about it.
(crowd applauding)
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
Dr. King had developed severe hiccups
and he would kind of sort of...
In the middle of a moment have a hiccuping fit.
And then somewhere down the line,
I discovered that that tick was no longer as evident.
And I asked him, "You seem to have gotten over the hiccup.
"What happened?"
And he looked and said, "It's very simple, Harry."
He said, "I made my peace with death."
Yeah.
Huh.
(dramatic music)
Martin had been in my home
a few days before he was murdered.
[Newsreader] At 7:10 this evening,
Martin Luther King was shot in Tennessee.
Martin Luther King, 20 minutes ago died.
(crowd gasping and exclaiming)
(crowd chattering)
I heard that he'd been shot
when a member of my staff came into the living room
at my home to tell me to turn on the television
and to take a look.
And I could not believe.
(dramatic music)
I cannot talk a lot about that period, I get upset.
The emotion of the time.
(dramatic music)
The first time I ever saw my father cry
was at the announcement of the assassination of Dr. King.
He sort of, I think he kind of went numb a little bit.
(dramatic music)
[Harry] Assassinations seemed to be a big part
of the American horror story.
[Interviewer] What's the worst experience you had
in terms of being on the receiving end of prejudice?
I think the death of Dr. King.
Very personally, it was a prejudiced act,
a sick act that snuffed out his life
in a time when a nation needed him desperately.
♪ And I believe there's a prophet ♪
We were very, very close.
♪ In heaven
♪ Yes there is
♪ Whatever's been done to you God is gonna... ♪
♪ Oh yes He will
He dove into the work to defend against, I think,
feeling that deeper pain and shock
because how does one really recover from that?
That's something that you carry forever.
In the work that we were doing
in the civil rights movement, with not only Dr. King,
but all of the other leaders of that period,
we were aware that we were stirring up a hornet's nest
and that there was going to be a price to be paid.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life
to love and to justice between fellow human beings.
He died in the cause of that effort.
About a month after he was on "The Tonight Show"
with Harry, Bobby Kennedy actually declared
that he was indeed going to run for president.
For a lot of us young Black and Mexican American men,
Bobby Kennedy gave us hope again.
(crowd cheering)
He spoke about an America that was really
the dream and the wish that everybody possessed.
Every American, no matter what his background,
what his creed, what color of his skin
or where he lives shall walk with dignity and honor
in the United States.
(crowd cheering)
I had been campaigning with him quite intensely.
So I had been very much involved with Bobby,
talking about all of the issues of a campaign.
And going to California, none of us were concerned
about his welfare in that community.
Because of all the places, California was certainly
one of the most liberal environments.
[Newsreader] Robert Kennedy is dead.
He's gone the same way his brother did.
When he was taken away from us, there was a void
that he just left that has yet to be filled.
The loss of Dr. King coupled with what happened
with Bobby Kennedy, set us up as a nation
to become as mismanaged as we are presenting ourselves
to be at this moment.
The death of those two men changed
the American climate severely.
Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight
as we don't plan to do the usual "Tonight Show" format
this evening.
Within a few months of their appearance
on "The Tonight Show," both Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy
had been assassinated.
Johnny Carson held a round table.
He knew Bobby Kennedy, but it wasn't just that.
He knew what was happening to the country.
And he thought it was important enough
to turn his whole show over to that topic.
All of the words and phrases you've heard
the past four days, I think the immediate thing was
we're a violent nation, we're a sick society.
What's wrong with us?
We're living like animals.
What is wrong with this country?
What the Harry Belafonte week did
was open the door to serious conversation
on these late night shows
about serious things.
But I say that this country has been going through
a revolution in the last few years,
just this country's in turmoil.
And I know that there is a seed of revolution
that's going through, the seed of change is going through.
(tense music)
The idea that people, just before they would go to bed,
would be interested, not only in entertainment,
but politics.
This is something that Harry Belafonte proved
in February of 1968.
And I, for one, welcome the fact
that artists have taken a stand for peace
and have taken a stand for justice.
I think since 1968 it's been very hard for folks.
And the country's never been the same.
And it's been terrific,
but I think it may have angered folks,
which led us to where we are today.
(protesters chattering)
The violence and hostility is still in America.
What have we missed in trying to reach those people
with our message?
(protestors shouting)
I'm now 90 years old
and I've been at this game since I was a teenager.
The backlash has continued ever since the 1960s.
Dr. King said there's going to be a tremendous resentment
against the government for sponsoring civil rights.
You've had a cynicism and an antigovernment movement
as a way of dealing with race
without actually mentioning race.
Television and politics, late night,
would come to fruition in the '90s
with Jon Stewart and others making us more uncomfortable
as we approach sleep,
worrying about the country and all the issues facing us.
Nine people were shot in a Black church
by a white guy who hated them, who wanted to start
some kind of civil war.
If you're with a group of people that are
chanting things like "Jews will not replace us"
and you don't immediately leave that group,
you are not a very fine person.
Isn't it interesting how every time
Republicans create a voting restriction,
it just so happens to disproportionately affect
people of the brown-brown?
Hmm?
Trump isn't the only one John Bolton implicates
in his book.
He also names angry baby bird, Mike Pompeo. (laughs)
♪ Pompeo
Pompeo.
Even if Trump is re-elected, this Ukraine story
will haunt him until the blessed day
when he's forcibly plunged out of the White House
like a toilet clog.
(audience applauding)
Late night has become increasingly political
in the Trump years, which is good.
But remains very, very white.
Stephen's the first late night host from South Carolina.
[Stephen] Right.
And the bajillionth white guy.
(audience laughs)
Exactly.
This chewing gum tastes funny.
It's a thousand dollars for the 10th anniversary iPhone.
I didn't spend a thousand dollars
on my 10th wedding anniversary, okay?
I think it's been tough for Black people
to have long running shows in late night
because of the lack of investment.
Kamala Harris is being criticized
for not being Black enough.
Yes.
Which frankly is the same criticism
I've had to endure my entire career.
White male late night hosts are given
a lot more room to grow.
Believe me, however shocked you are
that I am doing this job,
you will never be as shocked as I am.
We've had some late night hosts, as Arsenio Hall.
I feel great.
There are probably people in Utah saying, "Who is he?"
From 1968 until Arsenio Hall.
To have that long without another Black face in late night
is wild to me.
It took a long time in between.
'Cause I think he did too good a job, scared everybody.
(Harry laughing)
They said, oh no, we're not gonna do this for a while.
We're not giving you the late night
and you know, to this day,
not much dark meat in late night.
Now, this week marks one year since Trump's election.
Now, the traditional first anniversary gift is paper,
so we got him this.
There's been a rotating door of women in late night.
Most never went beyond one season.
[Announcer] It's "The Late Show" starring Joan Rivers.
(funky music)
[Announcer] Whoopi!
Welcome back.
I need to hear Black women and I need to hear Black men
and I need to hear Latinas and I need to hear Asian people.
Like, I need to hear everyone's opinions.
Otherwise you're just getting one.
And that is never the truth.
That's what was so important about
what Harry Belafonte did back then in 1968.
And it's why it's so important that Black representation
in late night is important now.
Black people in America are like,
oh, we've been saying this justice system is crazy as shit.
And now Trump is like, "So crazy!
"So wild, who would have thought?"
See, if he had Black friends they would have told him.
I think we've just got to keep working
to make that week reality
and to create a space in entertainment
where Black people will always have a stake
and will always have a say,
and will always be able to talk about
the issues that matter.
Whoa, Black identity...
To us and matter to the world at large.
(brassy music)
I think the legacy of that week
was speaking to issues that had serious content and intent
and how easily we did it as a people.
I thought that we were talking about was
engrossing, entertaining.
I thought that all the subtext,
the social issues of the day,
to hear people talk about the craft
that brought them to public limelight.
The American public was not only entertained,
but were glued to what this was all about.
(brassy music)
(audience applauding)
♪ He pursued justice and marched with kings ♪
♪ And hosted shows and broke boundaries and ♪
♪ He believed in humanity and ♪
♪ Shined the light on adversity and ♪
♪ Like the souls of the rivers ♪
♪ Like the faith wouldn't quiver ♪
♪ Like blessings we needed
♪ He sang songs of freedom
♪ I wish you could meet Harry ♪
♪ He carried the light into freedom ♪
♪ Every time he sang day-o day-o ♪
♪ One day you should meet Harry ♪
♪ He spoke of the wisdom to lead us ♪
♪ Through all the joys and pain ♪
♪ I said Harry Harry hosting The Tonight Show ♪
♪ Was very very big for the culture ♪
♪ Necessary necessary black man on the telly ♪
♪ In Johnny's seat ♪
♪ Johnny's seat five days one week ♪
♪ That's a feat that's a feat ♪
♪ It can't be beat can't be beat ♪
♪ Make us proud when we out there in the street ♪
♪ In the street
♪ Marching with Martin
♪ Movements we starting
♪ Sacrifice to know what's right ♪
♪ It's civil rights spark it let's go ♪
♪ I wish you could meet Harry ♪
♪ He carried the light of freedom ♪
♪ Every time he sang day-o day-o ♪
♪ Some day you should meet Harry ♪
♪ He spoke with the wisdom to lead us ♪
♪ Through all the joys and pain ♪
♪ Wish you could meet Harry Belafonte ♪
♪ I wish you could meet Harry ♪
♪ He carried the light into freedom ♪
♪ Every time he sang day-o day-o ♪
♪ One day you should meet Harry ♪
♪ He spoke with the wisdom to lead us ♪
♪ Through all the joys and pain ♪
♪ I wish you could meet Harry Belafonte ♪
♪ See Johnny Carson called on the Calypso King ♪
♪ To sing songs and host his show for a week long ♪
♪ Belafonte's talking about right and wrong ♪
♪ Through TV sets in living rooms ♪
♪ He showed them how to get along ♪
♪ Jump in line and carry on
♪ He showed that
♪ He started speaking out and speaking up ♪
♪ Sitting back just ain't enough ♪
♪ Sitting and struggling
♪ Save some time but get it done ♪
♪ Turn on the TV you'll see it's Harry and Bobby ♪
♪ You'll see it's Harry and Martin ♪
♪ The reasons we're sparking yeah ♪
♪ I wish you could meet Harry ♪
♪ He carried the light into freedom ♪
♪ Every time he sang
♪ Wish you could meet Harry Belafonte ♪
♪ One day you should meet Harry ♪
♪ He spoke of the wisdom to lead us ♪
♪ Through all the joys and pain ♪
♪ I wish you could meet Harry Belafonte ♪
♪ ♪