The Panopticon Review: IN TRIBUTE TO AND HONOR OF DR, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ‘The Economic Problem Is the Most Serious Problem--Dr. King appears on NBC television with guest host Harry Belafonte in February, 1968 a mere two months before he was assasinated at the age of 39

Monday, January 19, 2026

IN TRIBUTE TO AND HONOR OF DR, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ‘The Economic Problem Is the Most Serious Problem--Dr. King appears on NBC television with guest host Harry Belafonte in February, 1968 a mere two months before he was assasinated at the age of 39

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘The Economic Problem Is the Most Serious Problem

February 23, 2017
The Nation

In February, 1968, Harry Belafonte hosted "The Tonight Show" and brought politics and activism into America's living rooms. In this clip, Martin Luther King Jr. talks to Belafonte about what is needed to achieve true civil rights.

Read the full story at TheNation.com/belafontetonight

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmauhsmcY2c

VIDEO: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on The Tonight Show on NBC with guest host Harry Belafonte in February 1968 just two months before Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968.

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

"There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art, the things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on. That's people like Billie Holiday and I hope that I will be that lucky, but meanwhile, the function, so far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times, whatever that might be."

Editor's Bio

Kofi Natambu, editor of The Panopticon Review, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He is the author of a biography MALCOLM X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: THE MELODY NEVER STOPS (Past Tents Press) and INTERVALS (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of SOLID GROUND: A NEW WORLD JOURNAL, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.

The Panopticon Review

Monday, January 19, 2026

IN TRIBUTE TO AND HONOR OF DR, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ‘The Economic Problem Is the Most Serious Problem--Dr. King appears on NBC television with guest host Harry Belafonte in February, 1968 a mere two months before he was assasinated at the age of 39

Malcolm X (1925-1965)

W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008)

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

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Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)

Edward Said (1935-2003)

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

Susan Sontag (1933-2004)

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