Over-the-Rhine got a treat Saturday as Harry Belafonte, joined by about 25 others, joined a peace walk through its streets.

        The 74-year-old singer, actor and activist, known for his 1957 “Banana Boat Song,” shook hands, signed autographs, and smiled at calls of “Day-O!” as he promoted the message of peace.

Harry Belafonte holds hands with two women on a curb Saturday in Washington Park. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM | RELATED NEWS Complete coverage in our special section.

        “I hope that this walk becomes a tradition,” he said. “We want people to feel that they have been a part of the process of peace.”

        Beginning at Third and Elm streets and ending at New Prospect Baptist Church more than 15 blocks away, the Peace & Freedom Walk wound through downtown and into Over-the-Rhine with stops in Washington Park, a Muslim prayer center near 15th and Elm, and several small businesses.

        The group even stopped to purchase bananas and other fruit from a sidewalk vendor.

        Mr. Belafonte was in Cincinnati as part of a two-day Urban Peace & Freedom Summit, hosted by staff and supporters of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

        The group held brainstorming sessions about ways in which the Freedom Center can help unite Cincinnati and how best to solicit ideas from residents of Cincinnati's urban neighborhoods about the upcoming museum.

        Mr. Belafonte, like the rest of the country, watched as streets in Over-the-Rhine erupted in violence last April after an unarmed black man fleeing police was shot by an officer.

        “I was surprised. I thought things were a little more together here,” he said Saturday.

        An active member of the civil rights movement to end segregration and build racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Belafonte said he is working with Freedom Center officials to find out how the upcoming center can benefit not just those outside Cincinnati, but everyone who resides in the city's urban neighborhoods.

        He also serves as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and has worked to stop gang violence in Los Angeles and curb the spread of AIDS in Africa.

        Ed Rigaud, president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, said summit participants suggested a face-to-face approach in its efforts to solicit input for the museum, expected to open in 2004.

        Once inside New Prospect Baptist Church, the group listened to songs performed by church musicians and continued to solicit ideas regarding the Freedom Center museum.

        “We could do a better job of including people in the shaping of what the Freedom Center will be,” Mr. Rigaud said. “We have to go to the streets. That's what we're doing.”
       

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