Tuesday, April 01, 2008

The Night James Brown Saved Boston

Friday will mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. On that sad April day, numerous American cities erupted into riots, but not Boston -- where James Brown, the legendary soul performer, helped to calm the frayed emotions of an entire city.

A new documentary on the subject, The Night James Brown Saved Boston, is due to be broadcast this Saturday, at 9 pm, by VH1:

April 5, 1968 -- the morning after one of the most catastrophic moments in American history: the assassination of Martin Luther King. The night before, America's inner cities began going up in flames. The night before, there was trouble in Roxbury, Boston's ghetto. Word on the street is that it's about to get worse. A lot worse.

At Boston's City Hall, Mayor Kevin White is trying to figure out what he can do to keep the fragile peace. Reportedly, he's about to cancel that day's biggest gathering -- a long-scheduled James Brown concert at the Boston Garden. Then, a call from one of Boston's most influential R&B DJs to the lone black city councilman points out the danger of that decision. Simply, he says, if the concert is cancelled, Boston might have the biggest uprising since the Boston Tea Party. And so, faced with the grim reality of making the wrong decision, the mayor and his team turn it around. Rather than cancel the show, they ask "Is there something James Brown can do to help?"

Up until this moment, James Brown has been an unsung civil rights hero. Being black in the music business, especially in the mid-1950s when James first hit his stride, made him a pioneering artist in a still-segregated business. "Crossing-over" wasn't easy, and he knew all too well what it meant to be "colored.". But James Brown doesn't just "feel the pain" of being black in America. Despite all of his success, he's still living it. And in songs like 1967's "Don't Be A Dropout," he's begun to speak out, saying what he believes down to his bones is true. In 1968, he will sing about America as his home, and he's also on the verge of his seminal social statement, "Say It Loud-I'm black and I'm proud."

Racial/ethnic issues | The Arts