Harry Belafonte says Bernie Sanders represents “a moral imperative.” | Getty Harry Belafonte endorses Bernie Sanders

Harry Belafonte has endorsed Bernie Sanders.

In a video posted on the Vermont senator’s YouTube channel, the entertainer and social activist says Sanders’ candidacy is giving an opportunity for “young people — all people a choice to turn this ship of state called America around and place it on a new course. That’s why I’ve endorsed Bernie Sanders.”


Belafonte said Sanders represents “a moral imperative” and a “certain kind of truth that’s not often evidenced in the course of politics.”

He encouraged people who have not made up their minds, and even those who have, to take a look at Sanders.

Belafonte is known to make controversial political statements, including about race.

In 2012, he suggested in an interview with MSNBC host Al Franken that President Barack Obama winning his second term meant that his political opponents should be rounded up and put in prison.

“The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a Third World dictator and put all these guys in jail,” Belafonte said. “You’re violating the American desire.”

In 2002, Belafonte compared Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, then top officials in the George W. Bush administration, to "slaves who lived in the house."

"I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black," Rice shot back.

As the Democratic primary shifts to more diverse states such as Nevada and South Carolina, the two candidates are seeking to demonstrate support among for African Americans and other minorities.

Sanders — who polls poorly among black and Latino voters — appeared on MSNBC Thursday, touting his record on civil rights.



"If you look at my record I have one of the strongest civil rights records in the United States Congress and I have fighting for those ideas from my first day when I was in the House of Representatives working with the Black Caucus," he said.

The Congressional Black Caucus PAC, however, is endorsing Clinton.

