President Joe Biden on Tuesday hailed the life of Harry Belafonte, the music legend and civil rights activist who died at the age of 96.
“He used his fame and fortune for the public good throughout his extraordinary career,” Biden said in a lengthy statement. “He became a powerful ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other giants of the Civil Rights Movement. He raised money and donated resources to post bail for activists jailed for acts of civil disobedience.”
“Harry Belafonte’s accomplishments are legendary and his legacy of outspoken advocacy, compassion, and respect for human dignity will endure,” he continued. “He will be remembered as a great American.”
But for all his praise of Belafonte’s fight for justice and human rights, Biden didn’t mention that Belafonte was a strong, decadeslong advocate for releasing the long-imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier ― something Biden could unilaterally do today if he wanted to, but hasn’t.
Belafonte spent years urging former President Barack Obama to grant clemency to Peltier, who the U.S. government put in prison nearly 50 years ago after a trial riddled with misconduct and lies ― and who definitely doesn’t belong there anymore.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office made a fall guy out of Peltier, now 78, when they convicted him for the murder of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Their conviction fell apart when they got caught hiding exculpatory evidence, so they changed their charge to aiding and abetting whoever did murder the agents, on the grounds that Peltier was among the dozens of people present near the shootings. The FBI never did figure out who shot the agents.
During the trial, the FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. Federal officials glossed over that all of Peltier’s co-defendants had already been acquitted on grounds of self-defense. A juror admitted on day two that she was racist against Native Americans. She was kept on the jury anyway.
Some of the same people who helped put Peltier in prison all those years ago have since urged his release, saying they never had proof that he committed any crimes. Beyond that, Peltier’s prolonged parole process has been so problematic that United Nations legal experts last year made the unusual decision to revisit his case. Over the summer, they called on Biden to release him immediately.
Throughout all of this, Peltier has maintained his innocence, a detail that has almost certainly prevented him from being paroled. He remains in a Florida penitentiary. He uses a walker now. He is blind in one eye from a partial stroke. He survived a scary bout with COVID-19 last year, and he’s wrestled with serious health concerns related to diabetes and an aortic aneurysm.
“I think we have to just keep on, keepin’ on.”
- Harry Belafonte on the fight for Leonard Peltier's freedom
Belafonte saw an ally in Obama to release Peltier from prison once and for all. In December 2012, he headlined a New York City benefit concert for Peltier, sharing the stage with folk singer Pete Seeger, rappers Common and Mos Def, and filmmaker Michael Moore. He was 85 years old at the time, gripping a cane as he addressed the crowd.
“I spoke with Leonard just before the show,” Belafonte said. “[Leonard] said, ‘Harry, I know how hard it’s been to organize these concerts. … I hope this evening is not about raising funds, but let it be about raising consciousness. Consciousness about injustice is what we have to do.’”
Four years later, in December 2016, Belafonte spoke at a Democracy Now! event in New York City and again pressed Obama to release Peltier before leaving office. He was now 89, and hunched over the podium as he spoke.
“I’ll take this opportunity to publicly, once again ― for the last few months, a passionate appeal has been made to President Barack Obama to use the power of the executive office to free my friend and our leader, Leonard Peltier,” Belafonte said to applause.
“With the understanding that if he fails before now and the end of the year to step to the plate and do the right thing, it will be a long time before we get a chance to think about Leonard being freed,” he continued. “But I think we have to just keep on, keepin’ on.”
Obama never did release Peltier. It’s not clear why.
Worse, it’s increasingly clear that the only reason that Peltier is still in prison is because the FBI simply doesn’t want him to get out, ever, even as its stated argument for keeping him there is wildly outdated, misleading and flat-out wrong.
Belafonte’s death comes a week after Amnesty International USA launched a new campaign aimed at pressuring Biden to release Peltier on humanitarian grounds. The group, which is typically focused on international human rights violations, has long advocated for Peltier’s release and timed its new campaign with the anniversary of his conviction on April 18, 1977.
“President Biden’s promises to do better on Indigenous peoples’ rights and criminal justice reform ring more and more hollow every day that Leonard Peltier remains in prison,” said Zeke Johnson, the national director of Campaigns & Crisis Response for Amnesty International USA.
“President Biden should read Peltier’s petition for clemency and grant it before Peltier dies in custody,” said Johnson. “No one should be imprisoned, let alone for nearly 50 years, when there are serious concerns about the fairness of their trial.”
A White House spokesman on Tuesday did not respond to a request for comment on whether Biden is considering granting clemency to Peltier.
HuffPost routinely asks the White House about Peltier but does not get any comment. The last time HuffPost remembers getting a response was in February 2022, with this statement from a Biden spokesman: “We are aware of Mr. Peltier’s request for a pardon and the outreach in support of his request. As many of you know, President Biden has a process for considering all requests for pardon or commutation, which is run through our White House Counsel’s Office. I don’t have more to share on Mr. Peltier’s request at this time.”
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also hailed Belafonte’s legacy on Tuesday, celebrating his “relentless advocacy for human rights.”
“Whether standing alongside Dr. King at the March on Washington, fighting against Apartheid or mobilizing for famine relief for Africa, he answered great moral crises of his time with his fiery, passionate activism,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Her spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether Pelosi backs Peltier’s release, an issue at the heart of Belafonte’s fiery, passionate activism.