Harry Belafonte performs “Try to Remember“ and “Michael Row the Boat Ashore“ | The Kennedy Center

Legendary singer, actor, activist, and Kennedy Center Honoree Harry Belafonte performs “Try to Remember“ and “Michael Row the Boat Ashore“ for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower during “An American Pageant of the Arts,“ on November 29, 1962. The purpose of the event was to raise funds for the National Cultural Center, begun under Eisenhower’s administration and encouraged under Kennedy’s. Two months after President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center as a “living memorial“ to John F. Kennedy. Watch the full pageant with Bob Newhart, Yo-Yo Ma, Danny Kaye, Marian Anderson, Robert Frost, Maria Tallchief, Andre Previn, and many more: Learn more about the Kennedy Center’s history: Harry Belafonte is a Jamaican-American s