From the MCRFB news archive: 1965
’65 Selma to Montgomery March Includes —
Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Bobby Darin, Chad Mitchell, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and More
MONTGOMERY — A million dollars’ worth of recording talent entertained the rapidly swelling crowd of voting rights marchers on the grounds of the City of St. Jude School here on the eve of the final leg of the Selma-to-Montgomery trek.
Mounting a temporary platform erected on coffin crates were civil rights entertainment committee chairman Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Tony Bennett, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Odetta, Joan Baez, Billy Eckstein, Pete Seeger, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Dick Gregory, Bobby Darin; Peter, Paul and Mary and others.
The ailing Mahalia Jackson was unable to attend but wired personal greetings.
Predominant on the program was the body of haunting song identified with the “movement.”
The following morning many of the recording artists marched into Montgomery with the 25,000 and staged another rousing concert on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.
As the column of marchers moved out of the Negro district and into the downtown Birmingham, stern-faced onlookers lining the route caught sight of Mary Travers, Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin, Chad Mitchell and Lena Horne and grabbed for cameras.
For the entertainers on the scene, it was not the first instance of identification with the “movement.” Nor is show business involvement in the rights struggle likely to abate.
As previously been reported last week, a veritable who’s who of the entertainment industry — some 60 stars — was to appear April 4 at New York’s Majestic Theater in a benefit for the late Rev. James Reeb’s family, the Voters Education Program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund of the Congress of Racial Equality.
The sponsoring committee was sprinkled with top recording industry executives. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; April 10, 1965).
