Fifty years later, the question is, what changed? Is the South and the country as a whole a better place because of the direct action at that time? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Black Americans on average die four years before White Americans, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistic released last month. “When America gets a cold, poor black folk get pneumonia,” said Dr. David Williams, professor of public health at Harvard, in a panel discussion last week.

Fifty years ago this month Harry Belafonte helped make history. On August 28, 1963, Mr. Belafonte, at Martin Luther King Jr.’s behest, recruited celebrities to speak to the estimated 250,000 Americans assembled on the Washington Mall ­— an event which, for many, defined a decade, even a century.

Music videos, movies, the Internet and the news have embedded the stereotypes of African American men as dangerous and violent in society, said the chairman and CEO of BET Networks, Debra Lee, at a forum on Friday afternoon.