Black Power is a political slogan espoused by black racialists and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States. The movement was prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values. "Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of separate social institutions and a self-sufficient economy.The earliest known usage of the term is found in a 1954 book by Richard Wright titled ''Black Power''. New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used the term on May 29, 1966 during a baccalaureate address at Howard University: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power."

Origin as a political slogan

The first popular use of the term "Black Power" as a social and political slogan was by Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Toure) and Willie Ricks (later known as Mukasa Dada), both organizers and spokespersons for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On June 16, 1966, after the shooting of James Meredith during the March Against Fear, Stokely Carmichael said:

"This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I ain't going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!"

Stokely Carmichael saw the concept of "Black Power" as a means of solidarity between individuals within the movement. With his conception and articulation of the word, he felt this movement was not just a movement for racial desegregation, but rather a movement to help combat America's crippling racism. He was quoted in saying: "For the last time, 'Black Power' means black people coming together to form a political force and either electing representatives or forcing their representatives to speak their needs."

A range of ideology

Some Black Power adherents believe in Black autonomy, with a variety of tendencies such as black nationalism, and black separatism. Often Black Power advocates are open to use violence as a means of achieving their aims, but this openness to violence was nearly always coupled with community organizing work. Such positions were for the most part in direct conflict with those of leaders of the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, and thus the two movements have often been viewed as inherently antagonistic. However, certain groups and individuals participated in both civil rights and black power activism.

Not all Black Power advocates were in favor of black nationalism and black separatism. While Stokely Carmichael and SNCC were in favor of black nationalism, organizations such as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense were not. Though they considered themselves to be at war with a power structure that was indeed all white, they were not at war with all Whites, merely the individuals in the existing power structure, who happened to be all white.

Bobby Seale, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, was outspoken about this. His stand was that the oppression of black people was more of a result of economic exploitation than anything innately racist. In his book ''Seize the Time'', he states that "In our view it is a class struggle between the massive proletarian working class and the small, minority ruling class. Working-class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. So let me emphasize again -- we believe our fight is a class struggle and not a race struggle."

Bayard Rustin, an elder statesman of the Civil Rights Movement, was a harsh critic of Black Power in its earliest days. Writing in 1966, shortly after the March Against Fear, Rustin said that Black Power “not only lacks any real value for the civil rights movement, but [...] its propagation is positively harmful. It diverts the movement from a meaningful debate over strategy and tactics, it isolates the Negro community, and it encourages the growth of anti-Negro forces.” He particularly criticized the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and SNCC for their turn toward Black Power, arguing that these two organizations once “awakened the country, but now they emerge isolated and demoralized, shouting a slogan that may afford a momentary satisfaction but that is calculated to destroy them and their movement.”

Internationalist offshoots of black power include African Internationalism, pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and black supremacy.

Background

The movement for Black Power in the U.S. came during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Many members of SNCC, among them Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), were becoming critical of the nonviolent approach to confronting racism and inequality—articulated and practiced by Martin Luther King, Jr., the NAACP and other moderates—and rejected desegregation as a primary objective.

SNCC's membership was generally younger than that of the other "Big Five" civil rights organizations and became increasingly more militant and outspoken over time. From SNCC's point of view, racist people had no qualms about the use of violence against black people in the U.S. who would not "stay in their place," and "accommodationist" civil rights strategies had failed to secure sufficient concessions for black people. As a result, as the Civil Rights Movement progressed, increasingly radical, more militant voices came to the fore to aggressively challenge white hegemony. Increasing numbers of black youth, particularly, rejected their elders' moderate path of cooperation, racial integration and assimilation. They rejected the notion of appealing to the public's conscience and religious creeds and took the tack articulated by another black activist more than a century before. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote:

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. ...Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will.

Civil Rights leaders also believed in agitation, but most did not believe in physically violent retaliation.

During the March Against Fear, there was a division between those aligned with Martin Luther King, Jr. and those aligned with Carmichael, marked by their respective slogans, "Freedom Now" and "Black Power."

While King never endorsed the slogan, his rhetoric sometimes came close to it. In his 1967 book ''Where Do We Go From Here?'', King wrote that "power is not the white man's birthright; it will not be legislated for us and delivered in neat government packages."

Impact

Although the concept remained imprecise and contested and the people, who used the slogan ranged from businesspeople who used it to push black capitalism to revolutionaries who sought an end to capitalism, the idea of Black Power exerted a significant influence. It helped organize scores of community self-help groups and institutions that did not depend on Whites. It was used to force black studies programs at colleges, to mobilize black voters to elect black candidates, and to encourage greater racial pride and self-esteem.

Impact on Black Politics

Though the Black Power movement did not immediately remedy the political problems faced by African Americans in the 1960s and '70s, the movement did contribute to the development of black politics both directly and indirectly. As a contemporary of and successor to the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement created, what sociologist Herbert H. Haines refers to as a “positive radical flank effect” on political affairs of the 1960s. Though the nature of the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement is contested, Haines’ study of the relationship between black radicals and the mainstream civil rights movement indicates that Black Power generated a “crisis in American institutions which made the legislative agenda of ‘polite, realistic, and businesslike’ mainstream organizations” more appealing to politicians. In this way, it can be argued that the more strident and oppositional messages of the Black Power movement indirectly enhanced the bargaining position of more moderate activists. Black Power activists approached politics with vitality, variety, wit, and creativity that shaped the way future generations approached dealing with America’s societal problems (McCartney 188). These activists capitalized on the nation’s recent awareness of the political nature of oppression, a primary focus of the Civil Rights Movement, developing numerous political action caucuses and grass roots community associations to remedy the situation

The National Black Political Convention, held March 10–12, 1972, was a significant milestone in black politics of the Black Power era. Held in Gary, Indiana, a majority black city, the convention included a diverse group of black activists, although it completely excluded whites. The convention was criticized for its racial exclusivity by Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, a group that supported integration. The delegates created a National Black Political Agenda with stated goals including the election of a proportionate number of black representatives to Congress, community control of schools, national health insurance, etc. Though the convention did not result in any direct policy, the convention advanced goals of the Black Power movement and left participants buoyed by a spirit of possibility and themes of unity and self-determination. A concluding note to the convention, addressing its supposed idealism, read: “At every critical moment of our struggle in America we have had to press relentlessly against the limits of the ‘realistic’ to create new realities for the life of our people. This is our challenge at Gary and beyond, for a new Black politics demands new vision, new hope and new definitions of the possible. Our time has come. These things are necessary. All things are possible.” Though such political activism may not have resulted in direct policy, they provided political models for later movements, advanced a pro-black political agenda, and brought sensitive issues to the forefront of American politics. In its confrontational and often oppositional nature, the Black Power movement, started a debate within the black community and America as a nation over issues of racial progress, citizenship, and democracy, namely “the nature of American society and the place of the African American in it.”. The continued intensity of debate over these same social and political issues is a tribute to the impact of the Black Power movement in arousing the political awareness and passions of citizens.

Impact on other movements

Though the aims of the Black Power movement were racially specific, much of the movement’s impact has been its influence on the development and strategies of later political and social movements. By igniting and sustaining debate on the nature of American society, the Black Power movement created what other multiracial and minority groups interpreted to be a viable template for the overall restructuring of society. By opening up discussion on issues of democracy and equality, the Black Power movement paved the way for a diverse plurality of social justice movements, including black feminism, environmental movements, affirmative action, and gay and lesbian rights. Central to these movements were the issues of identity politics and structural inequality, features emerging from the Black Power movement Because the Black Power movement emphasized and explored a black identity, movement activists were forced to confront issues of gender, class and as well. Many activists in the Black Power movement became active in related movements. This is seen in the case of the “second wave” of women’s right activism, a movement supported and orchestrated to a certain degree by women working from within the coalition ranks of the Black Power movement. The boundaries between social movements became increasingly unclear at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s; where the Black Power movement ends and where these other social movements begin is often unclear. “It is pertinent to note that as the movement expanded the variables of gender, class, and only compounded issues of strategy and methodology in black protest thought.”

Impact on African American identity

Due to the negative and militant reputation of such auxiliaries like that of the Black Panther Party, many people felt that this movement of "insurrection" would soon serve to cause discord, and disharmony through the entire U.S. Even Stokely Carmichael stated, "When you talk of Black Power, you talk of building a movement that will smash everything Western civilization has created." Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, the psychological and cultural messages of the Black Power movement, though less tangible, have had perhaps a longer lasting impact on American society than concrete political changes. Indeed, “fixation on the ‘political’ hinders appreciation of the movement’s cultural manifestations and unnecessarily obscures black culture’s role in promoting the psychological well being of the Afro-American people.”. States William L. Van Deburg, author of A New Day in Babylon, “movement leaders never were as successful in winning power for the people as they were in convincing people that they had sufficient power within themselves to escape ‘the prison of self-deprecation’” Primarily, the liberation and empowerment experienced by African Americans occurred in the psychological realm. The movement uplifted the black community as a whole by cultivating feelings of racial solidarity, often in opposition to the world of white Americans, a world that had physically and psychologically oppressed Blacks for generations. Through the movement, Blacks came to understand themselves and their culture by exploring and debating the question, “who are we?” in order to establish a unified and viable identity.

Throughout the Civil Rights Movement and black history a tension has existing between those wishing to minimize and maximize racial difference. W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr. often attempted to deemphasize race in their quest for equality, while those advocating for separatism and colonization emphasized an extreme and irreconcilable difference between races. The Black Power movement largely achieved an equilibrium of “balanced and humane ethnocentrism.” The respect and attention accorded to African Americans’ history and culture in both formal and informal settings today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the 1960s and '70s.

Black is beautiful

The cultivation of pride in the African American race was often summarized in the phrase "Black is Beautiful". The phrase is rooted in its historical context, yet the relationship to it has changed in contemporary times. “I don’t think it’s ‘Black is beautiful’ anymore. It’s ‘I am beautiful and I’m black.’ It’s not the symbolic thing, the afro, power sign… That phase is over and it succeeded. My children feel better about themselves and they know that they’re black,” stated a respondent in Bob Blauner’s longitudinal oral history of U.S. race relations in 1986. The outward manifestations of an appreciation and celebration of blackness abound: black dolls, natural hair, black Santas, models and celebrities that were once rare and symbolic have become commonplace.

The "Black is beautiful" cultural movement aimed to dispel the notion that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly. John Sweat Rock was the first to coin the phrase "Black is Beautiful", in the slavery era. The movement asked that men and women stop straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin. The prevailing idea in American culture was that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The movement is largely responsible for the popularity of the Afro. Most importantly, it gave a generation of African Americans the courage to feel good about who they are and how they look.

Impact on arts and culture

The Black Power movement produced artistic and cultural products that both embodied and generated pride in “blackness” and further defined an African American identity that remains contemporary. Black Power is often seen as a cultural revolution as much as a political revolution, with the goal of celebrating and emphasizing the distinctive group culture of African Americans to an American society that had previously been dominated by white artistic and cultural expressions. Black power utilized all available forms of folk, literary, and dramatic expression based in a common ancestral past to promote a message of self-actualization and cultural self-definition. The emphasis on a distinctive black culture during the Black Power movement publicized and legitimized a culture gap between Blacks and Whites that had previously been ignored and denigrated. More generally, in recognizing the legitimacy of another culture and challenging the idea of white cultural superiority, the Black Power movement paved the way for the celebration of multiculturalism in America today.

The cultural concept of “soul” was fundamental to the image of African American culture embodied by the Black Power movement. Soul, a type of “in-group cultural cachet,” was closely tied to black America’s need for individual and group self-identification. A central expression of the “soulfulness” of the Black Power generation was a cultivation of aloofness and detachment, the creation of an “aura or emotional invulnerability,” a persona that challenged their position of relative powerlessness in greater society. The nonverbal expressions of this attitude, including everything from posture to handshakes, were developed as a counterpoint to the rigid, “up-tight” mannerisms of white people. Though the iconic symbol of black power, the arms raised with biceps flexed and clenched fists, is temporally specific, variants of the multitude of handshakes, or “giving and getting skin,” in the 1960s and 70s as a mark of communal solidarity continue to exist as a part of black culture. Clothing style also became an expression of Black Power in the 1960s and '70s. Though many of the popular trends of the movement remained confined to the decade, the movement redefined standards of beauty that were historically influenced by Whites and instead celebrated a natural “blackness.” As Stokely Carmichael said in 1966, “We have to stop being ashamed of being black. A broad nose, thick lip and nappy hair is us and we are going to call that beautiful whether they like it or not.” “Natural” hair styles, such as the Afro, became a socially acceptable tribute to group unity and a highly visible celebration of black heritage. Though the same social messages may no longer consciously influence individual hair or clothing styles in today’s society, the Black Power movement was influential in diversifying standards of beauty and aesthetic choices. The Black Power movement raised the idea of a black aesthetic that revealed the worth and beauty of all black people.

In developing a powerful identity from the most elemental aspects of African American folk life, the Black Power movement generated attention to the concept of “soul food,” a fresh, authentic, and natural style of cooking that originated in Africa. The flavor and solid nourishment of the food was credited with sustaining African Americans through centuries of oppression in America and became an important aid in nurturing contemporary racial pride. Black Power advocates used the concept of “soul food” to further distinguish between white and black culture; though the basic elements of soul food were not specific to African American food, Blacks believed in the distinctive quality, if not superiority, of foods prepared by Blacks. No longer racially specific, traditional “soul foods” such as yams, collard greens, and deep-fried chicken continue to hold a place in contemporary culinary life.

Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement or BAM, founded in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoy Jones) can be seen as the artistic branch of the Black Power movement. This movement inspired black people to establish ownership of publishing houses, magazines, journals and art institutions. Other well-known writers who were involved with this movement included Nikki Giovanni; Don L. Lee, later known as Haki Madhubuti; Sonia Sanchez; Maya Angelou; Dudley Randall; Sterling Plumpp; Larry Neal; Ted Joans; Ahmos Zu-Bolton; and Etheridge Knight. Several black-owned publishing houses and publications sprang from the BAM, including Madhubuti's Third World Press, Broadside Press, Zu-Bolton's Energy Black South Press, and the periodicals ''Callaloo'' and ''Yardbird Reader''. Although not strictly involved with the Movement, other notable African American writers such as novelists Ishmael Reed and Toni Morrison and poet Gwendolyn Brooks can be considered to share some of its artistic and thematic concerns.

BAM sought “to link, in a highly conscious manner, art and politics in order to assist in the liberation of black people”, and produced an increase in the quantity and visibility of African American artistic production. Though many elements of the Black Arts movement are separate from the Black Power movement, many goals, themes, and activists overlapped. Literature, drama, and music of Blacks “served as an oppositional and defensive mechanism through which creative artists could confirm their identity while articulating their own unique impressions of social reality.” In addition to acting as highly visible and unifying representations of “blackness,” the artistic products of the Black Power movement also utilized themes of black empowerment and liberation. For instance, black recording artists not only transmitted messages of racial unity through their music, they also became significant role models for a younger generation of African Americans. Updated protest songs not only bemoaned oppression and societal wrongs, but utilized adversity as a reference point and tool to lead others to activism. Some Black Power era artists conducted brief mini-courses in the techniques of empowerment. In the tradition of cultural nationalists, these artists taught that in order to alter social conditions, Blacks first had to change the way they viewed themselves; they had to break free of white norms and strive to be more natural, a common theme of African American art and music. Musicians such as the Temptations sang lyrics such as “I have one single desire, just like you / So move over, son, ‘cause I’m comin’ through” in their song “Message From a Black Man,” they expressed the revolutionary sentiments of the Black Power movement.

Ishmael Reed, who is considered neither a movement apologist nor advocate said "I wasn't invited to participate because I was considered an integrationist" but he went on to explain the positive aspects of the Black Arts Movement and the Black Power movement:

I think what Black Arts did was inspire a whole lot of Black people to write. Moreover, there would be no multiculturalism movement without Black Arts. Latinos, Asian Americans, and others all say they began writing as a result of the example of the 1960s. Blacks gave the example that you don't have to assimilate. You could do your own thing, get into your own background, your own history, your own tradition and your own culture. I think the challenge is for cultural sovereignty and Black Arts struck a blow for that.

By breaking into a field typically reserved for white Americans, artists of the Black Power era expanded opportunities for current African Americans. “Today’s writers and performers,” writes William L. Van Deburg, “recognize that they owe a great deal to Black Power’s explosion of cultural orthodoxy”.

See also

Wadsworth Jarrell, one of the leading artists of the Black Arts Movement

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

African independence movements

African-American – Jewish relations#Black power movement

Black anarchism

Black feminism

Black Power Revolution

Black Consciousness Movement

Eldridge Cleaver

Deacons for Defense and Justice

Marcus Garvey

Malcolm X

National-Anarchism

Négritude

New Black Panthers

Huey P. Newton

Protests of 1968

Red Power movement

Republic of New Africa

SNCC

Notes

Further reading

Carmichael, Stokely/ Hamilton, Charles V.: ''Black Power. The Politics of Liberation in America'', Vintage, New York, 1967.

Breitman, George. ''In Defense of Black Power''. International Socialist Review Jan-Feb 1967, from Tamiment Library microfilm archives. Transcribed & marked up by Andrew Pollack for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line. Retrieved May 2, 2005.

Salas, Mario Marcel. Masters Thesis: Patterns of Persistence: Paternal Colonialist Structures and the Radical Opposition in the African American Community in San Antonio, 1937–2001, University of Texas at San Antonio.

Brown, Scot, ''Fighting for US: Maulana Karenga, the US Organization, and Black Cultural Nationalism,'' NYU Press, New York, 2003.

Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. ''Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity,'' The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004.

External links

Website of Dr. Christian Davenport, Director of the Radical Information Project and Professor of Peace Studies, Political Science and Sociology - University of Notre Dame

Website of Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, Professor of African-American Studies - Scholar of African American history and frequent commentator on civil rights, race and democracy issues

The Immortal Birth Book, Gods & Earths

Stokely-Carmichael.com - Focus on Carmichael's life and rhetoric

The official website of the New Black Panther Party.

Black Youth Empowerment

Hubert Harrison

Ben Fletcher

A History of Harlem CORE

''The Black Power Mixtape'' – New Documentary Featuring Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, & Stokely Carmichael - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:Politics and race Category:African-American culture Category:African American history Category:African and Black nationalism Category:Racism

de:Black Power es:Black Power fr:Black Power ko:블랙 파워 it:Potere nero nl:Black Power no:Black Power pl:Black Power pt:Black Power sv:Black Power

name	Kwame Ture
office	4th Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
term start	May 1966
term end	June 1967
predecessor	John Lewis
successor	H. Rap Brown
birth date	June 29, 1941
birth place	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
death date	November 15, 1998
death place	Conakry, Guinea
spouse	}}

Kwame Ture (June 29, 1941 November 15, 1998), also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick") and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party. Initially an integrationist, Carmichael later became affiliated with black nationalist and Pan-Africanist movements. He popularized the term "Black Power". He also was apart of the black panther party and the SNCC ! He was born around the civil rights movements like Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.which made a famous speech called "I have a dream", we have herd or will hear about that one day in life, remember he also made other speeches !

Early life and education

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Stokely Carmichael moved to Harlem, New York City in 1952 at age eleven to rejoin his parents, who had left him with his grandmother and two aunts to emigrate when he was two. He attended the elite Tranquility School in Trinidad until his parents were able to send for him.

His mother, Mabel R. Carmichael, was a stewardess for a steamship line, and his father Adolphus was a carpenter who also worked as a taxi driver. The reunited Carmichael family eventually left Harlem to live in Morris Park in the East Bronx, at that time an aging Jewish and Italian neighborhood. According to a 1967 interview he gave to LIFE Magazine, he was the only black member of the Morris Park Dukes, a youth gang involved in alcohol and petty theft.

He attended the Bronx High School of Science. In 1960, Carmichael went on to attend Howard University, a historically-black university in Washington, D.C.. His professors included Sterling Brown, Nathan Hare and Toni Morrison. Carmichael and a white student and civil-rights activist, Tom Kahn, helped to fund a five-day run of the ''Three Penny Opera'', by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill: "Tom Kahn—very shrewdly—had captured the position of Treasurer of the Liberal Arts Student Council and the infinitely charismatic and popular Carmichael as floor whip was good at lining up the votes. Before they knew what hit them the Student Council had become a patron of the arts, having voted to buy out the remaining performances. It was a classic win/win. Members of the Council got patronage packets of tickets for distribution to friends and constituents". His apartment on Euclid Street was a gathering place for his activist classmates. He graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1964.

He joined the Nonviolent Action Group (NAG), the Howard campus affiliate of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Tom Kahn introduced Carmichael and the other SNCC activists to Bayard Rustin, who became an influential adviser to SNCC. Carmichael became inspired by the sit-ins to become more active in the Civil Rights Movement. In his first year at the university, he participated in the Freedom Rides of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and was frequently arrested, spending time in jail. In 1961, he served 49 days at the infamous Parchman Farm in Sunflower County, Mississippi. He was arrested many times for his activism. He lost count of his many arrests, sometimes giving the estimate of at least 29 or 32, and telling the Washington Post in 1998 he believed the total number was fewer than 36.

Freedom Rides

In his first year at the Howard University, the nineteen-year-old Carmichael participated in the Freedom Rides of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Along with eight other riders, on June 4, 1961 Carmichael made the trip by train from New Orleans, LA to Jackson, MS. Before getting on the train in New Orleans, they encountered white protestors blocking the way. Carmichael says that “They were shouting. Throwing cans and lit cigarettes at us. Spitting on us.”. Eventually, they were able to board the train.

When the group arrived in Jackson, Carmichael and the eight other riders entered a “white” cafeteria; however, they were convicted of disturbing the peace and were sent straight to the jail (D). Eventually Carmichael was transferred to Parchman State Prison Farm where he gained notoriety for being a witty and hard nosed leader among the prisoners.

At nineteen years old, Carmichael became the youngest detainee in the summer of 1961. He spent 53 days at Parchman Farm in “a six-by-nine cell. Twice a week to shower. No books, nothing to do. They would isolate us. Maximum security.”. Carmichael said about the Parchman Farm sheriff that “The sheriff acted like he was scared of black folks and he came up with some beautiful things. One night he opened up all the windows, put on ten big fans and an air conditioner and dropped the temperature to 38 degrees. All we had on was T-shirts and shorts.”. While being hurt one time, Carmichael began singing to the guards, “I’m gonna tell God how you treat me” to which the rest of the prisoners joined in.

Carmichael kept the groups morale up while in prison, often telling jokes with Steve Green and the other Freedom Riders, and making light of their situation. While he joked around quite a bit, Carmichael knew this was serious. “What with the range of ideology, religious belief, political commitment and background, age, and experience, something interesting was always going on. Because no matter our differences, this group had one thing in common, moral stubbornness. Whatever we believed, we really believed and were not at all shy about advancing. We were where we were only because of our willingness to affirm our beliefs even at the risk of physical injury. So it was never dull on death row.”. According to Carmichael: "Black Power meant black people coming together to form a political force and either electing representatives or forcing their representatives to speak their needs [rather than relying on established parties]". Heavily influenced by the work of Frantz Fanon and his landmark book ''Wretched of the Earth'', along with others such as Malcolm X, under Carmichael's leadership SNCC gradually became more radical and focused on Black Power as its core goal and ideology. This became most evident during the controversial Atlanta Project in 1966. SNCC, under the local leadership of Bill Ware, engaged in a voter drive to promote the candidacy of Julian Bond for the Georgia State Legislature in an Atlanta district. However, unlike previous SNCC activities — like the 1961 Freedom Rides or the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer — Ware excluded Northern white SNCC members from the drive. Initially, Carmichael opposed this move and voted it down, but he eventually changed his mind. When, at the urging of the Atlanta Project, the issue of whites in SNCC came up for a vote, Carmichael ultimately sided with those calling for the expulsion of whites, reportedly to encourage whites to begin organizing poor white southern communities while SNCC would continue to focus on promoting African American self reliance through Black Power.

Carmichael saw nonviolence as a tactic as opposed to a principle, which separated him from moderate civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.. Carmichael became critical of civil rights leaders who simply called for the integration of African Americans into existing institutions of the middle class mainstream.

According to ''Bearing the Cross'' (1986), David J. Garrow's Pulitzer Prize winning book about the Civil Rights movement, a few days after Carmichael used the "Black Power" slogan at the "Meredith March Against Fear," he reportedly told King, "Martin, I deliberately decided to raise this issue on the march in order to give it a national forum and force you to take a stand for Black Power." King responded, "I have been used before. One more time won't hurt."

In 1967, Carmichael stepped down as chairman of SNCC and was replaced by H. Rap Brown. The SNCC, which was a collective and, in keeping with the spirit of the times, worked by group consensus rather than hierarchically, was displeased with Carmichael's celebrity status. SNCC leaders had begun to refer to him as "Stokely Starmichael" and criticize his habit of making policy announcements independently, before achieving internal agreement, and gave him a formal letter of expulsion in 1967. There is some speculation around Carmichael’s reasoning for stepping down from the chairman position of SNCC. According to his personal narratives, Carmichael witnessed African American demonstrators being beaten and shocked with cattle prods by the police. Witnessing the helplessness of people so fully committed to the non-violent approach gave Carmichael a new perspective, one which condoned the use of violent techniques against the brutality of the racist police force. Carmichael’s new tactics sought to reciprocate the fear instilled in African Americans by the police force, which led to the creation of the militant social group known as “The Black Panthers.”

After his time with the SNCC, Carmichael attempted to clarify his politics by writing the book ''Black Power'' (1967) with Charles V. Hamilton and became a strong critic of the Vietnam War. During this period he traveled and lectured extensively throughout the world; visiting Guinea, North Vietnam, China, and Cuba. After his expulsion from the SNCC, Carmichael became more clearly identified with the Black Panther Party as its "Honorary Prime Minister." During this period he became more of a speaker than an organizer, traveling throughout the country and internationally advocating for his vision of Black Power.

Carmichael also lamented the 1967 execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, professing:

Vietnam

Carmichael joined Martin Luther King Jr. in New York on April 15, 1967 to share his views with protesters on race in terms of the war in Vietnam. It is known that the pair shared very similar viewpoints on this issue because Carmichael is largely responsible for teaching Martin Luther King Jr. much of the history of Vietnam.

Self-imposed exile

However, Carmichael soon began to distance himself from the Panthers. The Panthers and Carmichael disagreed on whether white activists should be allowed to help the Panthers. The Panthers believed that white activists could help the movement, while Carmichael thought as Malcolm X, saying that the white activists needed to organize their own communities first. In 1969, he and his then-wife, the South African singer Miriam Makeba, moved to Guinea-Conakry where he became an aide to Guinean prime minister Ahmed Sékou Touré and the student of exiled Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah. Makeba was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the United Nations. Three months after his arrival in Africa, in July 1969, he published a formal rejection of the Black Panthers, condemning the Panthers for not being separatist enough and their "dogmatic party line favoring alliances with white radicals".

It was at this stage in his life that Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture to honor the African leaders Nkrumah and Touré who had become his patrons. At the end of his life, friends still referred to him interchangeably by both names, "and he doesn't seem to mind."

Carmichael remained in Guinea after separation from the Black Panther Party. He continued to travel, write, and speak out in support of international leftist movements and in 1971 collected his work in a second book ''Stokely Speaks: Black Power Back to Pan-Africanism''. This book expounds an explicitly socialist, Pan-African vision, which he seemingly retained for the rest of his life. From the late 1970s until the day he died, he answered his phone by announcing "Ready for the revolution!"

While in Guinea, he was arrested one more time. Two years after Touré's death in 1984, the military regime which took his place arrested Carmichael and jailed him for three days on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the government. Despite common knowledge that President Touré engaged in torture of his political opponents, Carmichael had never criticized his namesake.

Carmichael and Makeba separated in 1973. After they divorced, he entered a second marriage with Marlyatou Barry, a Guinean doctor whom he also divorced. By 1998, his second wife and their son, Bokar, born in 1982, were living in Arlington County, Virginia. Relying on a statement from the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, his 1998 obituary in ''The New York Times'' referenced two sons, three sisters, and his mother as survivors but without further details.

Death and legacy

After two years of treatment at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, he died of prostate cancer at the age of 57 in Conakry, Guinea. He claimed that his cancer "was given to me by forces of American imperialism and others who conspired with them." He claimed that the FBI had introduced the cancer to his body as an attempt at assassination. After his diagnosis in 1996, he was treated in Cuba for his illness while receiving money from the Nation of Islam. Benefit concerts were held in Denver; New York; Atlanta; and Washington, D.C., to help defray his medical expenses; and the government of Trinidad and Tobago, where he was born, awarded him a grant of $1,000 a month for the same purpose.

In 2007, the publication of previously secret Central Intelligence Agency documents revealed that Carmichael had been tracked by the CIA as part of their surveillance of black activists abroad, which began in 1968 and continued for years.

In a final interview given to the ''Washington Post'', he spoke with contempt for the economic and electoral progress made during the past thirty years. He acknowledged that blacks had won election to major mayorships, but stated that the power of mayoralty had been diminished and that such progress was essentially meaningless.

Stokely Carmichael, along with Charles Hamilton, are credited with coining the phrase "institutional racism", which is defined as a form of racism that occurs through institutions such as public bodies and corporations, including universities. In the late 1960s Carmichael defined "institutional racism" as "the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color, culture or ethnic origin".

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson gave a speech celebrating Carmichael's life, stating: "He was one of our generation who was determined to give his life to transforming America and Africa. He was committed to ending racial apartheid in our country. He helped to bring those walls down".

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Stokely Carmichael on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

See also

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

References

Further reading

Carmichael, Stokely, et al. ''Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)''. Scribner 2005, 848 pages. ISBN 0-684-85004-4.

Carmichael, Stokely, et al. ''Black Power: The Politics of Liberation''. Vintage; Reissue edition 1992, 256 pages. ISBN 0-679-74313-8.

Carmichael, Stokely, et al. ''Stokely Speaks: Black Power Back to Pan-Africanism''. Random House 1971, 292 pages. ISBN 0-394-46879-1.

Joseph, Peniel E., ''Waiting 'Til The Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America''. 399 pages. ISBN 0-8050-8335-9

External links

Stokely Carmichael - Life, Politics and Rhetoric

Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael Page. Stokely Carmichael spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington on April 19, 1967. Audio and slideshow. Retrieved May 3, 2005.

Stokely Carmichael FBI FOIA

A final interview with Kwame Ture in the ''Washington Post'' published April 8, 1998

Research resources

Stokely Carmichael-Lorna D. Smith Collection, 1964-1972 (5 linear ft.) is housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries

Videos

Kwame Ture on Zionism

Feb 17 1968 on PBS.org

consciousness and unconsciousness

With H. Rap Brown, Oakland, 1968 (longer version of PBS clip)

Category:1941 births Category:1998 deaths Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:Trinidad and Tobago people of Black African descent Category:American socialists Category:Black Panther Party members Category:The Bronx High School of Science alumni Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Community organizers Category:Howard University alumni Category:Pan-Africanism Category:Deaths from prostate cancer Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants Category:Trinidad and Tobago socialists Category:Cancer deaths in Guinea Category:20th-century African-American activists

ca:Stokely Carmichael de:Stokely Carmichael es:Stokely Carmichael fr:Stokely Carmichael ko:스토클리 카마이클 it:Stokely Carmichael ja:ストークリー・カーマイケル pt:Stokely Carmichael

name	Michelle Malkin
birth name	Michelle Marie Maglalang
birth date	October 20, 1970
birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
citizenship	American
ethnicity	Filipino
alma mater	Oberlin College - (B.A., 1992)
occupation	Author, syndicated columnist, television personality and blogger
spouse	Jesse D. Malkin (m. 1993)
children	2
religion	Roman Catholic
website	Michelle Malkin }}

Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang; born October 20, 1970) is an American conservative blogger, political commentator, and author. Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites. She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written four books published by Regnery Publishing.

Early life

Malkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Philippine citizens Rafaela (née Perez), a homemaker and teacher, and Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, who was then a physician-in-training. Several months prior to Malkin's birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa. After her father finished his medical training, the family moved to Absecon, a small town in South Jersey. Malkin has a younger brother. She has described her parents as Reagan Republicans who were "not incredibly politically active".

Malkin was raised a Roman Catholic, and remains one to this day. She attended Holy Spirit Roman Catholic High School, where she edited the school newspaper and aspired to become a concert pianist. Following her graduation in 1988, she enrolled at Oberlin College. Malkin originally planned to pursue a bachelor's degree in music, but changed her major to English. During her college years, she worked as a press inserter, tax preparation aide, and network news librarian. While attending Oberlin, Malkin began writing for an independent, right-of-center student newspaper that was started by Jesse Dylan Malkin, a fellow student. Her first article for the paper heavily criticized Oberlin's affirmative action program, and received a "hugely negative response" from other students on campus. She graduated in 1992, and later described her ''alma mater'' as "radically left-wing".

Career

Malkin began her journalism career at the ''Los Angeles Daily News'', working as a columnist from 1992 to 1994. In 1995, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a journalism fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market, anti-government regulation, libertarian think tank In 1996, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she wrote columns for ''The Seattle Times''. Malkin became a nationally-syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate in 1999.

For many years, Malkin was a frequent commentator for Fox News Channel and a regular guest host of ''The O'Reilly Factor''. In 2007, she announced that she would not return to The ''O'Reilly Factor'', claiming that Fox News had mishandled a dispute over derogatory statements made about her by Geraldo Rivera in a ''Boston Globe'' interview. Since 2007, she has concentrated on her writing, blogging and public speaking, although she still appears on television occasionally, especially with Sean Hannity on Fox News and Fox & Friends once a week. In December 2009, Malkin began writing for the ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat''.

In August 2004, following claims by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that presidential candidate John Kerry had exaggerated his record during the Vietnam War, Malkin appeared on MSNBC's ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'' and stated that there were "legitimate questions" over whether Kerry's wounds were "self-inflicted". When host Chris Matthews asked her eleven times whether she meant Kerry had shot himself on purpose, she dodged the question, but ultimately said that other soldiers had made this claim. Malkin criticized Matthews and the MSNBC staff in her blog the following day. Georgia Senator Zell Miller accused Matthews of "browbeating" Malkin.

Books

Malkin has written four books, all published by Regnery Publishing Her first book, ''Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces'' (2002) was a ''New York Times'' bestseller.

In 2004, she wrote ''In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror'', defending the U.S. government's internment of 112,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, and arguing that the same procedures could be used on Arab- and Muslim-Americans today. The book engendered harsh criticism from several Asian American civil rights organizations. The "Historians' Committee for Fairness", a group of professors, condemned the book for not having undergone peer review and argued that its central thesis is false. As a result of the controversy, the Hawaii-based newspaper ''MidWeek'' dropped her column in August 2004; ''The Virginian-Pilot'' called her "an Asian Ann Coulter" and dropped her column in November 2004. Malkin responded that she is American not Asian, and that the comparison to Ann Coulter was "somewhat of a compliment". Critics of Malkin's theory attempted to get the Manzanar National Historic Site, (a former relocation and internment camp), to ban her book from their store, but failed.

Malkin's third book, ''Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild'', was released in October 2005.

''Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies'', Malkin's fourth book, was released in July 2009 and was a ''The New York Times'' Non-Fiction, Hardcover Best Seller for six weeks. Malkin said she hoped the book would "shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington", described the Obama administration as run by "influence peddlers, power brokers and very wealthy people," and called it "one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory." She later discussed chapter two of the book, "Bitter Half: First Crony Michelle Obama", on NBC's ''Today'' show. She described Michelle Obama as "steeped in the politics of the Daley machine" and as having based her professional career on nepotism and old white boy network connections.

Blogging

MichelleMalkin.com

In June 2004 she launched a political blog, MichelleMalkin.com. A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Malkin as one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers", and Technorati ranks MichelleMalkin.com consistently in its "Top 100 blogs of all types".

After Malkin criticized hip hop artist Akon for "degrading women" in a ''Vent'' episode, Akon's record label, Universal Music Group, forced YouTube to remove the video by issuing a DMCA takedown notice, but decided to retract this notice after the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined Malkin and ''Hot Air'' in contesting the removal as a misuse of copyright law.

In an interview with ''BusinessWeek'' magazine in July 2007, Malkin said, "We’re doing what few other blogs can do. We serve up terabytes of bandwidth... I'm shelling out for gold-plated servers. That's expensive, and we want to be able to withstand huge traffic surges."

She continued to contribute frequently to MichelleMalkin.com, and in June 2007, she revamped it, moving it to a larger server on WordPress. With the new redesign, she re-enabled comments on her blog, which she said she had disallowed after February 2005 due to a high level of obscene and racist comments. Subscribed readers could once again post comments, although registration for the comments is rarely open. Malkin states her policy thus: "I may allow as much or as little opportunity for registration as I choose, in my absolute discretion, and I may close particular comment threads."

Jamil Hussein

Malkin was one of several bloggers who questioned the credibility and even the existence of Iraqi police Captain "Jamil Hussein" who had been used as a source by the Associated Press in over 60 stories about the Iraq war. The controversy started in November 2006 when the AP reported that six Iraqis had been burned alive as they left a mosque and that four mosques had been destroyed, citing Hussein as one of its sources. In January 2007, Malkin visited Baghdad, and stated, "the Iraqi Ministry of Interior says disputed Associated Press source Jamil Hussein does exist. At least one story he told the AP just doesn’t check out: The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as 'destroyed,' 'torched' and 'burned and blown up' are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious." Malkin has issued a correction for her denial of Capt. Hussein's existence

Students Against War controversy

In April 2006, Students Against War (SAW), a campus group at University of California, Santa Cruz, staged a protest against the presence of military recruiters on campus, and sent out a press release containing contact details (names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) of three student leaders for use by reporters. Malkin included these contact details in a blog column entitled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America". Malkin claimed the contact information was originally taken from SAW's own website, but that later SAW had removed it and had "wiped" the "cached version". The students asked Malkin to remove the contact details from her blog, but Malkin reposted them several times writing in her blog: "I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."

SAW remarked: "Due to the continued irresponsible actions of some bloggers, members of the group have received numerous death threats and anti-Semitic comments through phone calls and emails." A blog war ensued. Malkin claimed that she received hostile e-mails then her private home address, phone number, photos of her neighborhood and maps to her house were published on several websites. The ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'' reported receiving an email from Malkin saying that this forced her to remove one of her children from school and move her family.

Another controversy involving private addresses began on July 1, 2006, when Malkin and other bloggers commented on a ''New York Times'' Travel section article that had featured the town where Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld owned summer homes. The article included a picture of Rumsfeld's long tree-lined driveway that showed a birdhouse and small portion of the housefront. Malkin declared that this story was part of "a concerted, organized effort to dig up and publicize the private home information of prominent conservatives in the media and blogosphere to intimidate them".

''Hot Air''

On April 24, 2006, ''Hot Air'', a "conservative Internet broadcast network" went into operation, with Malkin as founder/CEO. She intended the blog to provide "content and analysis you can't get anywhere else on a daily basis–both on the blog and in our original video features". Her staffers included 'Allahpundit' and Bryan Preston, though the latter was replaced by Ed Morrissey on February 25, 2008. In February 2010, Hotair.com was bought by Salem Communications and is no longer administered by Malkin.

Viewpoints

Citizenship

Malkin believes that the custom of granting automatic citizenship at birth to children of tourists and temporary workers, and to "anchor babies" delivered by illegal aliens on American soil, undermines the integrity of citizenship. She argues that the custom of blanket birthright citizenship is supported neither by the Fourteenth Amendment nor by legal precedent.

Immigration enforcement

Malkin also opposes sanctuary cities, in which local authorities do not enforce all national immigration laws or coordinate with agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Following the August 2007 execution-style murder of three college students in Newark, New Jersey, she repeated her criticisms of politicians' posture towards sanctuary cities. In particular, she criticized former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's proposal for a tamper-proof identification card with this comment:

She supports coordination with federal authorities through the use of Section 287(g) of the IIRIRA to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds. Malkin supports the detention and deportation of some immigrants, regardless of legal status, on national security grounds.

Unemployment benefits

During an appearance as a news analyst on the roundtable segment of ABC's ''This Week with George Stephanopoulos'' on August 2, 2009, she explained why she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits: "if you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road... people will just delay getting a job until the three weeks before the benefits run out."

Personal life

At Oberlin, she began dating Jesse Malkin. Jesse was granted a Rhodes Scholarship to begin study at Oxford University in 1991. They married in 1993, and have two children. Jesse worked as an associate policy analyst and economist focusing on healthcare issues for the RAND Corporation. In 2004, Malkin reported on her website that Jesse had left a "lucrative health-care consulting job" to be a stay-at-home dad.

In 2006, Malkin gave a lecture at Oberlin College discussing racism, among other topics. She refuted allegations that she had been insensitive to the "plight of minorities" by listing several racial epithets that had been used against her, and by relating a lesson she learned from her mother for which she is "eternally grateful". After returning home in tears because kindergarten classmates had called her a racist name, Malkin said her mother comforted her and told her "everyone has prejudice".

The family lived in North Bethesda, Maryland, but relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado in November 2008.

Notes

References

External links

Malkin's official site

Michelle Malkin Features at Creators Syndicate

Hot Air

Archive of Malkin's columns at Townhall.com

"Columnist isn't smiling over swastika in rally photo". ''Rocky Mountain News''. February 19, 2009.

"Michelle Malkin: Grace, gratitude, and G-d". ''Jewish World Review''. November 24, 2004.

Archive of Malkin's columns at ''Jewish World Review''

Category:1970 births Category:American anti–illegal immigration activists Category:American bloggers Category:American Christians Category:American columnists Category:American journalists of Asian descent Category:American people of Filipino descent Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American pro-life activists Category:American television news anchors Category:American television reporters and correspondents Category:American women journalists Category:American writers of Filipino descent Category:Commentators Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Living people Category:Oberlin College alumni Category:People from Atlantic County, New Jersey Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

de:Michelle Malkin simple:Michelle Malkin sh:Michelle Malkin

Notes

References

External links

Malkin's official site

Michelle Malkin Features at Creators Syndicate

Hot Air

Archive of Malkin's columns at Townhall.com

"Columnist isn't smiling over swastika in rally photo". ''Rocky Mountain News''. February 19, 2009.

"Michelle Malkin: Grace, gratitude, and G-d". ''Jewish World Review''. November 24, 2004.

Archive of Malkin's columns at ''Jewish World Review''

Category:1970 births Category:American anti–illegal immigration activists Category:American bloggers Category:American Christians Category:American columnists Category:American journalists of Asian descent Category:American people of Filipino descent Category:American political pundits Category:American political writers Category:American pro-life activists Category:American television news anchors Category:American television reporters and correspondents Category:American women journalists Category:American writers of Filipino descent Category:Commentators Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Living people Category:Oberlin College alumni Category:People from Atlantic County, New Jersey Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

de:Michelle Malkin simple:Michelle Malkin sh:Michelle Malkin

name	Angela Davis
birth name	Angela Yvonne Davis
birth date	January 26, 1944
birth place	Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
ethnicity	African-American
citizenship	United States
education	University of Santa Cruz
alma mater	Brandeis University, B.A., (1965)University of California, San Diego, M.A.Humboldt University, Ph.D., Philosophy
occupation	Activist, Educator, Author
employer	University of California, Santa Cruz, (retired)
influences	Herbert Marcuse
party	Communist Party USA (1969-1991), Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (1991-currenty)
spouse	Hilton Braithwaite div.
relatives	Ben Davis, brother
footnotes	}}

Angela Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party. Prisoner rights have been among her continuing interests; she is the founder of "Critical Resistance", an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. She is presently a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is the former director of the university's Feminist Studies department. Her research interests are in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music and social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons.

Her membership in the Communist Party led to Ronald Reagan's request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. She was tried and acquitted of suspected involvement in the Soledad brothers' August 1970 abduction and murder of Judge Harold Haley in Marin County, California.

She was twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s.

Early life

Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father, Frank Davis, was a graduate of St. Augustine's College, a traditionally black college in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was briefly a high school history teacher. Her father later owned and operated a service station in the black section of Birmingham. Her mother, Sallye Davis, a graduate of Miles College in Birmingham, was an elementary school teacher.

The family lived in the "Dynamite Hill" neighborhood, which was marked by racial conflict. Davis was occasionally able to spend time on her uncle's farm and with friends in New York City. Her brother, Ben Davis, played defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Davis also has another brother, Reginald Davis, and sister, Fania Davis Jordan.

Davis attended Carrie A. Tuggle School, a black elementary school; later she attended Parker Annex, a middle-school branch of Parker High School in Birmingham. During this time Davis’ mother was a national officer and leading organizer of the Southern Negro Congress, an organization heavily influenced by the Communist Party. Consequently Davis grew up surrounded by communist organizers and thinkers who significantly influenced her intellectual development growing up. By her junior year, she had applied to and was accepted at an American Friends Service Committee program that placed black students from the South in integrated schools in the North. She chose Elisabeth Irwin High School in Greenwich Village in New York City. There she was introduced to socialism and communism and was recruited by a Communist youth group, Advance. She also met children of some of the leaders of the Communist Party USA, including her lifelong friend, Bettina Aptheker.

Education

Brandeis University

Davis was awarded a scholarship to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she was one of three black students in her freshman class. She initially felt alienated by the isolation of the campus (at that time she was interested in Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre), but she soon made friends with foreign students. She encountered the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse at a rally during the Cuban Missile Crisis and then became his student. In a television interview, she said "Herbert Marcuse taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary." She worked part time to earn enough money to travel to France and Switzerland before she went on to attend the eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki, Finland. She returned home in 1963 to an FBI interview about her attendance at the Communist-sponsored festival.

During her second year at Brandeis, she decided to major in French and continued her intensive study of Sartre. Davis was accepted by the Hamilton College Junior Year in France Program and, she wrote in her autobiography, she managed to talk Brandeis into extending financial support via her scholarship. Classes were initially at Biarritz and later at the Sorbonne. In Paris, she and other students lived with a French family. It was at Biarritz that she received news of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, committed by the members of the Ku Klux Klan, an occasion that deeply affected her, because, she wrote, she was personally acquainted with the young victims.

Nearing completion of her degree in French, Davis realized her major interest was in philosophy. She became particularly interested in the ideas of Herbert Marcuse and on her return to Brandeis she sat in on his course without asking for credit. Marcuse, she wrote, turned out to be approachable and helpful. Davis began making plans to attend the University of Frankfurt for graduate work in philosophy. In 1965 she graduated magna cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

University of Frankfurt

In Germany, with just a stipend of $100 a month, she first lived with a German family. Later, she moved with a group of students into a loft in an old factory. After visiting East Berlin during the annual May Day celebration, she felt that the East German government was dealing better with the residual effects of fascism than were the West Germans. Many of her roommates were active in the radical Socialist German Student Union (SDS), and Davis participated in SDS actions, but events unfolding in the United States — the formation of the Black Panther Party and transformation of SNCC, for example — impelled her to return to the US.

Postgraduate work

Marcuse, in the meantime, had moved to the University of California, San Diego, and Davis followed him there after her two years in Frankfurt.

Returning to the United States, Davis stopped in London to attend a conference on "The Dialectics of Liberation." The black contingent at the conference included the American Stokely Carmichael and the British Michael X. Although moved by Carmichael's fiery rhetoric, she was disappointed by her colleagues' black nationalist sentiments and their rejection of communism as a "white man's thing." She held the view that any nationalism was a barrier to grappling with the underlying issue, capitalist domination of working people of all races.

Davis earned her master's degree from the San Diego campus and her doctorate in philosophy from Humboldt University in East Berlin.

UCLA

Davis was an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at the UCLA, beginning in 1969. At that time, she also was known as a radical feminist and activist, a member of the Communist Party USA and an associate of the Black Panther Party.

The Board of Regents of the University of California, urged by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan, fired her from her $10,000 a year post in 1969 because of her membership in the Communist Party. Black students and several professors, however, claimed that they fired her because of her race. The Board of Regents was censured by the American Association of University Professors for their failure to reappoint Davis after her teaching contract expired. On October 20 when California judge, Perry Pacht, ruled that the Reagents could not fire Davis because of her affiliation with the Communist Party, Davis resumed her post at the University. The Reagents, unhappy with the decision, continued to search for ways to release Davis from her position at UCLA. They finally accomplished this on June 20, 1970 when they fired Davis on account of the “inflammatory language” she had used on four different speeches. “We deem particularly offensive,” the report said, “such utterances as her statement that the regents ‘killed, brutalized (and) murdered’ the People’s Park demonstrators, and her repeated characterizations of the police as ‘pigs.’”

Arrest and trial

On August 7, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, a heavily armed, seventeen year old African American high school student gained control over a courtroom in Marin County, California. Once in the courtroom, Jackson armed the black defendants and took Judge Harold Haley, the prosecutor, and three female jurors as hostages.

As Jackson transported the hostages and two black convicts away from the courtroom, the police began shooting at the vehicle. The judge, one of the jurors, the prosecutor, and the three black men were killed in the melee. Davis had purchased the firearms used in the attack, including the shotgun used to kill Haley, which had been purchased two days prior and sawed-off. She had also written numerous letters found in the prison cell of one of the murderers. Since California considers “all persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense… principals in any crime so committed,” San Marin County Superior Judge Peter Allen Smith charged Davis with “aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley” and issued a warrant for her arrest (21). Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970 a massive attempt to arrest Angela Davis began. On August 18, 1970, four days after the initial warrant was issued, FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover made Angela Davis the third woman and the 309th person to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List.

Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California. According to her autobiography, during this time she hid in friends’ homes and moved from place to place at night. On October 13, 1970 FBI agents found her at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City. President Richard M. Nixon congratulated the FBI on its “capture of the dangerous terrorist, Angela Davis. On January 5, 1971, after several months in jail, Angela Davis appeared at the Marin County Superior Court and declared her innocence before the court and nation: "I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, was one of the first attorneys to represent Davis for her alleged involvement in the shootings. While being held in the Women's Detention Center there, she was initially segregated from the general population, but with the help of her legal team soon obtained a federal court order to get out of the segregated area.

Across the nation, the thousands of people who agreed with her declaration began organizing a liberation movement. In New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February 1971 more than two hundred local committees in the United States, and sixty-seven in foreign countries worked to liberate Angela Davis from prison. Thanks, in part, to this support, in 1972 the state released her from prison.

On February 23, 1972, Rodger McAfee, a dairy farmer from Caruthers, California with the help of Steve Sparacino, a wealthy business owner, paid her $100,000 bail. Portions of her legal defense expenses were paid for by the Presbyterian Church (UPCNA).

During the trial, Davis was sketched by courtroom artists Rosalie Ritz and Walt Stewart.

In 1972, she was tried and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The fact that she owned the guns used in the crime was judged not sufficient to establish her responsibility for the plot. Her experience as a prisoner in the US played a key role in convincing her to fight against the “prison industrial complex” that exists in the US. John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded their song "Angela" on their 1972 album ''Some Time In New York City'' in support. The Jazz musician Todd Cochran, also known as Bayete, recorded his song "Free Angela (Thoughts...and all I've got to say)" that same year. The Rolling Stones recorded the song "Sweet Black Angel" on their 1972 album ''Exile on Main Street''.

In Cuba

After her release, Davis visited Cuba following her fellow radicals Huey Newton, Stokely Carmichael, and Assata Shakur. Her reception by Afro-Cubans at a mass rally was so enthusiastic that she was reportedly barely able to speak.

During this visit she also became convinced that “only under socialism could the fight against racism be successfully executed.” During her stay in Cuba, Davis witnessed what she thought was a racism free country which led her to believe that blacks could only achieve racial equality in a socialist society. When she returned to the United States, her socialist leanings increasingly influenced the ways she looked at race struggles within the US.

Davis’ visit to Cuba had another unplanned side effect in Cuban society. It is widely believed that prior to Davis’ visit, the Cuban government banned afros. After her visit, however, afros became so popular amongst Afro-Cubans that the government had to legalize the hairstyle.

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

In a New York City speech on July 9, 1975, Russian dissident and Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn told an AFL-CIO meeting that Davis was derelict in supporting various socialist projects around the world, given her stark opposition to the U.S. prison system. In particular, Solzhenitsyn claimed that a group of Czech prisoners appealed to Davis for support, which he said she refused to offer. In a speech at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, Davis denied Solzhenitsyn's claim.

Activism

In 1980 and 1984, Angela Davis ran for Vice-President along with the veteran party leader of the Communist Party, Gus Hall. However, given that the Communist Party lacked support within the US, Davis urged radicals to amass support for the Democratic Party. ''Revolutionaries must be realists,'' said Davis in a telephone interview from San Francisco where she was campaigning. During both of the campaigns she was Professor of ethnic studies at the San Francisco State University. In 1979 she was also awarded with the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union for her civil rights activism. She visited Moscow in July of that year to collect the prize.

Davis has continued a career of activism, and has written several books. A principal focus of her current activism is the state of prisons within the United States. She considers herself an abolitionist, not a "prison reformer," and has referred to the United States prison system as the "prison-industrial complex". Davis suggested focusing social efforts on education and building "engaged communities" to solve various social problems now handled through state punishment. Davis was one of the primary founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison system.

In recent work, Angela Davis argues that the prison system in the United States more closely resembles a new form of slavery than a criminal justice system. According to Davis, between the late 1800s and the mid 1900s the number of prisons in the US sharply increased while crime rates continued to rise. During this time, the African American population also became disproportionally represented in prisons. "What is effective or just about this "justice" system?" she urged people to question. To encourage people to critically think about the criminal justice system and its racist history, Davis has also spent years lecturing in schools, parks, and other public places to the American public.

She has lectured at San Francisco State University, Stanford University, Bryn Mawr College, Brown University, Syracuse University, and other schools. She states that in her teaching, which is mostly at the graduate level, she concentrates more on posing questions that encourage development of critical thinking than on imparting knowledge. In 1997, she declared herself to be a lesbian in ''Out'' magazine.

As early as 1969 Davis began publicly speaking, voicing her opposition to the Vietnam War, racism, sexism, and the prison industrial complex, and her support of gay rights and other social justice movements. In 1969 she blamed imperialism for the troubles suffered by oppressed populations. “We are facing a common enemy and that enemy is Yankee Imperialism, which is killing us both here and abroad. Now I think anyone who would try to separate those struggles, anyone who would say that in order to consolidate an anti-war movement, we have to leave all of these other outlying issues out of the picture, is playing right into the hands of the enemy,” Davis declared. In 2001 she publicly spoke against the war on terror, the prison industrial complex, and the broken immigration system and told people that if they wanted to solve social justice issues they had to “hone their critical skills, develop them and implement them." Later, after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she declared, the “horrendous situation in New Orleans,” is due to the structures of racism, capitalism, and imperialism with which our leaders run this country.

Davis spoke out against the 1995 Million Man March, arguing that the exclusion of women from this event necessarily promoted male chauvinism and that the organizers, including Louis Farrakhan, preferred women to take subordinate roles in society. Together with Kimberlé Crenshaw and others, she formed the African American Agenda 2000, an alliance of Black feminists.

Davis is no longer a member of the Communist Party, leaving it to help found the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which broke from the Communist Party USA because of the latter's support of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the Communist parties of the Warsaw Pact. She remains on the Advisory Board of the Committees.

Davis has continued to speak out against the death penalty. In 2003, Davis lectured at Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts women's college in Atlanta, on prison reform, minority issues, and the ills of the criminal justice system. At the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), she participated in a 2004 panel concerning Kevin Cooper. She also spoke in defense of Stanley "Tookie" Williams on another panel in 2005, and 2009.

As of February 2007, Davis was teaching in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In addition to being the commencement speaker at Grinnell College in 2007, in October of that year, Davis was the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz.

On February 8, 2008, Davis spoke on the campus of Howard University at the invitation of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. On February 24, 2008, she was featured as the closing keynote speaker for the 2008 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference. On April 14, 2008, she spoke at the College of Charleston as a guest of the Women's and Gender Studies Program. On January 23, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Commemorative Celebration on the campus of Louisiana State University.

On April 16, 2009, she was the keynote speaker at the University of Virginia Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies symposium on The Problem of Punishment: Race, Inequity, and Justice. On January 20, 2010, Davis was the keynote speaker in San Antonio, Texas, at Trinity University's MLK Day Celebration held in Laurie Auditorium. On January 21, 2011, Davis was the keynote speaker (opened by Good Sista, Bad Sista) in Salem, OR at Willamette University's MLK Week Celebration held in Smith Auditorium where she declared that her biggest goal for the coming years is to shutdown prisons. At the lecture she also stated that while she supports some of Obama's work she feels that he is too conservative. On January 27, 2011, Davis was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration speaker at Georgia Southern University's Performing Arts Center (PAC) in Statesboro, Georgia. On June 10, 2011 Davis is scheduled to deliver the Graduation Address at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington.

Davis is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Syracuse University.

Bibliography

''Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire'', Seven Stories Press (October 1, 2005), ISBN 1583226958.

''Are Prisons Obsolete?'', Open Media, (April 2003), ISBN 1583225811

''Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday'', Vintage Books, (January 26, 1999), ISBN 0679771263

''Women, Culture & Politics'', Vintage, (February 19, 1990), ISBN 0679724877.

''The Angela Y. Davis Reader'', (Joy James, Ed.), Wiley-Blackwell (December 11, 1998), ISBN 0631203613.

''Women, Race, & Class'', (February 12, 1983)

''Angela Davis: An Autobiography'', Random House, (September 1974), ISBN 0394489780

''If They Come in the Morning: voices of Resistance (New York: Third Press, 1971)

''1970's-Joan Little: The Dialectics of Rape''(New York: Lang Communications, 1975)

Angela Davis interviews and appearances in audiovisual materials

1971

*Davis, Angela Y. An Interview with Angela Davis. Cassette. Radio Free People, New York, 1971.

*Myerson, M. "Angela Davis in Prison." Ramparts Magazine March 1971: 20-21.

*Seigner, Art. Angela Davis: Soul and Soledad. Phonodisc. Flying Dutchman, New York, 1971.

*Interview with Angela Davis in San Francisco on June, 1970

*Walker, Joe. Angela Davis Speaks. Phonodisc. Folkways Records, New York, 1971.

1972

*"Angela Davis Talks about her Future and her Freedom." Jet July 27, 1972: 54- 57.

1977

*Davis, Angela Y. I am a Black Revolutionary Woman (1971). Phonodisc. Folkways, New York, 1977.

*Phillips, Esther. Angela Davis Interviews Esther Phillips. Cassette. Pacifica Tape Library, Los Angeles, 1977.

1985

*Cudjoe, Selwyn. In Conversation with Angela Davis. Videocassette. ETV Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1985. 21 minute interview with Angela Davis.

1992

*Davis, Angela Y. "Women on the Move: Travel Themes in Ma Rainey's Blues" in Borders/diasporas. Sound Recording. University of California, Santa Cruz: Center for Cultural Studies, Santa Cruz, 1992.

2000

*Davis, Angela Y. The Prison Industrial Complex and its Impact on Communities of Color. Videocassette. University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, 2000.

2001

*Barsamian, D. "Angela Davis: African American Activist on Prison-Industrial Complex." Progressive 65.2 (2001): 33-38.

2002

*September 11 America: an Interview with Angela Davis." Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization”. Cambridge, Ma.: South End Press, 2002.

Archives

#The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis is at the Main Library at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (A collection of thousands of letters received by the Committee and Davis from people in the US and other countries.) #The complete transcript of her trial, including all appeals and legal memorandum, have been preserved in the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Library in Berkeley, California.

See also

List of African American philosophers

References

External links

Film clip, Davis speaking at Florida A&M; University’s Black History Month convocation, 1979

Davis quotations gathered by ''Black History Daily''

A PBS interview

Round table discussion on "Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex, with Davis as a guest

''New York Times'' archive of Davis-related articles

''Time'' chat-room users interview with Davis on "Attacking the 'Prison Industrial Complex." 1998

''Harvard Gazette'' article, March 13, 2003

Davis timeline at UCLA

Audio recording of Davis at a Practical Activism Conference in Santa Cruz in 2007

''Guardian'' interview with Davis, November 8, 2007

Davis entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Alabama''

Angela Davis on the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest and President Obama’s First Two Years - video interview by ''Democracy Now!''

Angela Davis Biography, The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:African American female activists Category:African American women in politics Category:African American academics Category:African American philosophers Category:African American studies scholars Category:African American United States vice-presidential candidates Category:African American writers Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American anti–death penalty activists Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists Category:American autobiographers Category:American feminist writers Category:American socialists Category:American women writers Category:Anti-poverty advocates Category:Anti-racism activists Category:Black feminism Category:Brandeis University alumni Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Communist Party USA politicians Category:Democratic socialists Category:Female United States vice-presidential candidates Category:Lenin Peace Prize recipients Category:Lesbian writers Category:LGBT African Americans Category:Marxist writers Category:People from Birmingham, Alabama Category:San Francisco Art Institute faculty Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1980 Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1984 Category:University of California, San Diego alumni Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Category:People acquitted of murder Category:People acquitted of kidnapping Category:African American female writers

az:Ancela Devis bg:Анджела Дейвис ca:Angela Davis cs:Angela Davisová da:Angela Davis de:Angela Davis et:Angela Davis es:Angela Yvonne Davis eo:Angela Davis fa:آنجلا دیویس fr:Angela Davis it:Angela Davis he:אנג'לה דייוויס lv:Andžela Deivisa hu:Angela Davis nl:Angela Davis no:Angela Davis pl:Angela Davis pt:Angela Davis ru:Дэвис, Анджела sc:Angela Davis sk:Angela Davisová fi:Angela Davis sv:Angela Davis tr:Angela Davis yo:Angela Davis

Background	solo_singer
Birth name	James Joseph Brown, Jr.
Birth date	May 03, 1933
Birth place	Barnwell, South Carolina, U.S.
Origin	Augusta, Georgia, United States
Death date	December 25, 2006
Death place	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genre	Rhythm and blues, funk, soul
Occupation	Singer, musician, songwriter, dancer, bandleader, record producer
Instrument	Vocal, guitar, harmonica, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion instruments
Years active	1956–2006
Label	Federal, King, Try Me, Smash, People, Polydor, Scotti Bros., Dade Records
Associated acts	The Famous Flames, The J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd , The Soul Generals, Lyn Collins
Website	}}

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. Eventually referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", Brown started singing in gospel groups and worked his way on up. He has been recognized as one of the most iconic figures in the 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. He was also called "The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business" and "Mr. Dynamite". He was also noted as the lead singer of the famed Rhythm & Blues vocal group, The Famous Flames.

Early life

James Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina on May 3, 1933 to Susie Brown and Joseph ("Joe") Gardner (who changed his surname to Brown after Mattie Brown who raised him). Although Brown was to be named after his father Joseph, his first and middle names were mistakenly reversed on his birth certificate. He therefore became James Joseph Brown, Jr. As a young child, Brown was called ''Junior''. When he later lived with his aunt and cousin, he was called ''Little Junior'' since his cousin's nickname was also ''Junior''. He was of African American, Native American (Apache), through his father, and had Asian ancestry.

As a young child, the family lived in extreme poverty in nearby Elko, South Carolina, which at the time was an impoverished town in Barnwell County. When Brown was two years old, his parents separated after his mother left his father for another man. After his mother abandoned the family, Brown continued to live with his father and his father's live-in girlfriends until he was six years old. After that time, Brown and his father moved to Augusta, Georgia.

His father sent him to live with an aunt, who ran a house of prostitution. Even though Brown lived with relatives, he spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out on the streets and hustling to get by. Brown managed to stay in school until he dropped out in the seventh grade.

During his childhood, Brown earned money shining shoes, sweeping out stores, selling and trading in old stamps, washing cars and dishes and singing in talent contests. Brown also performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon at the start of World War II as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt's home. Between earning money from these adventures, Brown taught himself to play a harmonica given to him by his father. He learned to play some guitar from Tampa Red, in addition to learning to play piano and drums from others he met during this time. Brown was inspired to become an entertainer after watching Louis Jordan, a popular jazz and R&B; performer during the 1940s, and Jordan's Tympany Five performing "Caldonia" in a short film.

As an adult, Brown legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation. In his spare time, Brown spent time practicing his various skills in Augusta-area stalls and committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa in 1949.

In 1952, while Brown was still in reform school, he met future R&B; legend Bobby Byrd, who was there playing baseball against the reform school team. Byrd saw Brown perform there and admired his singing and performing talent. As a result of this friendship, Byrd's family helped Brown secure an early release after serving three years of his sentence. The authorities agreed to release Brown on the condition that he would get a job and not return to Augusta or Richmond County. After stints as a boxer and baseball pitcher in semi-professional baseball (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy toward music.

Career

Brown's career spanned decades, and profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moves on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly Africanised approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the "chitlin' circuit", and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.

1955: The Famous Flames

In 1955, Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a group called "The Gospel Starlighters". Eventually, Brown joined Bobby Byrd's vocal group, the Avons, and Byrd turned the group's sound towards secular rhythm and blues. After the group's name was changed to The Flames, Brown and Byrd's group toured the Southern "chitlin' circuit". The group eventually signed a deal with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based label Federal Records, a sister label of King Records. Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B; compositions, heavily influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Ray Charles, Little Willie John, Clyde McPhatter and Little Richard.

Little Richard's relations with Brown were particularly significant in Brown's development as a musician and showman. Brown once called Richard his idol, and credited Richard's saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, with being the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat. Etta James recalled her first meeting with James Brown, in Macon, Georgia, where Brown had befriended Little Richard. She said Brown "used to carry around an old tattered napkin with him, because Little Richard had written the words, 'please, please, please' on it and James was determined to make a song out of it...". The resulting track "Please, Please, Please" ended up becoming The Flames first R&B; hit in 1956, selling over a million copies. However, nine subsequent singles released by The Flames failed to live up to the success of their debut, and the group was in danger of being dropped by Federal Records. When Little Richard left pop music in October 1957 to become a preacher, Brown filled out Little Richard's remaining tour dates in his place. Further, several former members of Little Richard's backup band joined Brown's group after Richard's exit from the pop music scene. Brown's group returned to the charts, hitting #1 R&B; in February 1959 with "Try Me". This hit record was the best-selling R&B; single of the year, becoming the first of 17 chart-topping R&B; singles by Brown over the next two decades. By the time "Try Me" was released on record, the group's billing was changed to James Brown and The Famous Flames. "The Famous Flames" was a vocal group, not a backing band.

In 1959, Brown and The Famous Flames moved from the Federal Records subsidiary to King Records, the parent label. Brown began to have recurring conflicts with King Records president Syd Nathan over repertoire and other matters. In one notable instance, Brown recorded the 1960 Top Ten R&B; hit "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" on Dade Records, owned by Henry Stone, under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & The Swans" because Nathan refused to allow him to record it for King.

Early and mid-1960s

In 1962, the singer Tammi Terrell came to the attention of James Brown and the seventeen-year-old found herself in Brown's popular Revue becoming one of Brown's first female headliners. In 1963, Terrell recorded for Brown's Try Me Records, releasing the ballad, "I Cried", which gave her some chart success. Terrell and Brown also had a personal relationship, which was hampered by Brown's physical abuse towards her. After a horrific incident backstage after a show, Terrell asked singer Gene Chandler (the "Duke of Earl", who witnessed the incident first hand) to take her to the bus station so she could go home. He later called her mother to come pick her up. This ended Terrell's two-year relationship with Brown. Brown scored on the charts in the early 1960s with recordings such as his 1962 cover of "Night Train". While Brown's early singles were major hits across the southern United States and then regular R&B; Top Ten hits, he and the Famous Flames were not successful nationally until his self-financed live show was captured on the 1963 LP ''Live at the Apollo''. Brown financed the recording of the album himself, and it was released on King Records over the objections of label owner Syd Nathan, who saw no commercial potential in a live album containing no new songs. Defying Nathan's expectations, the album stayed on the pop charts for fourteen months, peaking at #2. In addition, Brown recorded a hit version of the ballad "Prisoner of Love", (his first Top 20 pop hit), in 1963 and founded (under King auspices) the fledgling Try Me Records, Brown's first attempt at running a record label.

Brown followed the success of ''Live at the Apollo'' with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined the foundation of Funk music. Driven by the success of ''Live at the Apollo'' and the failure of King Records to expand record promotion beyond the "black" market, James Brown and fellow Famous Flame Bobby Byrd formed a production company, Fair Deal, to promote sales of Brown's record releases to white audiences. In this arrangement, Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, was used as a vehicle to distribute Brown's music. Smash released his 1964 hit "Out of Sight", which reached #24 on the pop charts and pointed the way to his later funk hits. Its release also triggered a legal battle between Smash and King that resulted in a one year ban on the release of Brown's vocal recordings.

During the mid-1960s, two of Brown's signature tunes "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)", both from 1965, were his first Top 10 pop hits, as well as major #1 R&B; hits, with each remaining the top-selling singles in black venues for over a month. In 1966, Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording (an award last given in 1968). Brown's national profile was boosted further that year by appearances in the movie ''Ski Party'' and the concert film ''The T.A.M.I. Show'', in which he and The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett and "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth) upstaged The Rolling Stones. In his concert repertoire and on record, Brown mingled his innovative rhythmic essays with Broadway show tunes and ballads, such as his hit "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966).

Late 1960s

As the 1960s decade neared its end, Brown continued to refine the new funk idiom. Brown's 1967 #1 R&B; hit, "Cold Sweat", sometimes cited as ''the first true funk song'', was the first of his recordings to contain a drum break and the first that featured a harmony that was reduced to a single chord. The instrumental arrangements on tracks such as "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968) and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969) featured a more developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style, with the horn section, guitars, bass and drums meshed together in intricate rhythmic patterns based on multiple interlocking riffs.

Changes in Brown's style that started with "Cold Sweat" also established the musical foundation for Brown's later hits, such as "I Got the Feelin'" (1968) and "Mother Popcorn" (1969). By this time Brown's vocals frequently took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation, not quite sung but not quite spoken, that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. This would become a major influence on the techniques of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades.

In November 1967, James Brown purchased radio station WGYW in Knoxville, Tennessee for a reported $75,000, according to the January 20, 1968 ''Record World'' magazine. The call letters were changed to WJBE reflecting his initials. WJBE began on January 15, 1968 and broadcast a Rhythm & Blues format. The station slogan was "WJBE 1430 Raw Soul". At the time it was mentioned "Brown has also branched out into real estate and music publishing in recent months".

Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s and soul shouters like King Curtis, Edwin Starr, Temptations David Ruffin, and Dennis Edwards. A then-prepubescent Michael Jackson took Brown's shouts and dancing into the pop mainstream as the lead singer of Motown's The Jackson 5. Those same tracks were later resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s onward. As a result, James Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist, with "Funky Drummer" itself becoming the most sampled individual piece of music.

Brown's band during this period employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B; with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield and Melvin Parker (Maceo's brother), saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, trombonist Fred Wesley, guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum and bassist Bernard Odum.

During this period, Brown's music empire also expanded along with his influence on the music scene. As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. Brown bought radio stations during the late 1960s, including radio station WRDW in Augusta, Georgia where he shined shoes as a boy. Brown also branched out to make several recordings with musicians outside his own band. He recorded ''Gettin' Down To It'' (1969) and ''Soul on Top'' (1970), two albums consisting mostly of romantic ballads and jazz standards, with the Dee Felice Trio and the Louie Bellson Orchestra respectively. He recorded a number of tracks with the Dapps, a white Cincinnati bar band, including the hit "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)". He also released three albums of Christmas music with his own band.

1970s and the J.B.'s

By 1970, most members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities, and The Famous Flames singing group had disbanded, with original member Bobby Byrd the only one remaining with Brown. Brown and Byrd employed a new band that included future funk greats, such as bassist Bootsy Collins, Collins' guitarist brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins and trombonist and musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The J.B.'s", and the band made its debut on Brown's 1970 single "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine". Although The J.B.'s went through several lineup changes, with the first change occurring in 1971, the band remained Brown's most familiar backing band.

In 1971, Brown began recording for Polydor Records which also took over distribution of Brown's King Records catalog. Many of his sidemen and supporting players, such as Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson and Hank Ballard, released records on the People label, an imprint founded by Brown that was purchased by Polydor as part of Brown's new contract. The recordings on the People label, almost all of which were produced by Brown himself, exemplified his "house style". Songs such as "I Know You Got Soul" by Bobby Byrd, "Think (About It)" by Lyn Collins and "Doing It to Death" by Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s are considered as much a part of Brown's recorded legacy as the recordings released under his own name.

In 1972, James Brown, when asked, openly proclaimed his support of Richard Nixon against the Democrat, George McGovern, and a nationwide boycott called by Black Democratic leaders damaged his status as the most successful Black entrepreneur in the country. Still, his popularity buoyed up his financial fortunes after a brief downturn, and he went on with his career, undaunted.

In 1973, Brown provided the score for the blaxploitation film ''Black Caesar''. In 1974, he toured Africa and performed in Zaire as part of the buildup to the Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Admirers of Brown's music, including Miles Davis and other jazz musicians, began to cite Brown as a major influence on their own styles. However, Brown, like others who were influenced by his music, also "borrowed" from other musicians. His 1976 single "Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B; #31) used the main riff from "Fame" by David Bowie, not the other way around as was often believed. The riff was provided to "Fame" co-writers John Lennon and Bowie by guitarist Carlos Alomar, who had briefly been a member of Brown's band in the late 1960s.

Brown's Polydor recordings during the 1970s exemplified his innovations from the previous twenty years. Compositions such as "The Payback" (1973), "Papa Don't Take No Mess", "Stoned to the Bone", and "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1974), and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) were among his most noted recordings during this time.

Late 1970s and 1980s

By the mid-1970s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians in his band such as Fred Wesley and Bootsy left to join Parliament-Funkadelic, the collective conducted by George Clinton. The onslaught of the slickly commercial style of disco caught Brown off guard, as it superseded his raw style of funk music on the dance floor. His 1976 albums ''Get Up Offa That Thing'' and ''Bodyheat'' were Brown's first flirtations with disco rhythms and its slicker production techniques. While the albums ''Mutha's Nature'' (1977) and ''Jam 1980s'' (1978) did not generate chart hits, Brown's 1979 LP ''The Original Disco Man'' was a notable late addition to his oeuvre. This album featured the song "It's Too Funky in Here", which was his last top R&B; hit of the decade. Like the rest of the songs on ''The Original Disco Man'', "It's Too Funky in Here" was not produced by Brown himself, but produced instead by Brad Shapiro.

Brown's contract with Polydor expired in 1981, and his recording and touring schedule was somewhat reduced. Despite these events, Brown experienced something of a resurgence during the 1980s, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. He appeared in the feature films ''The Blues Brothers'', ''Doctor Detroit'' and ''Rocky IV'', as well as guest starring in the ''Miami Vice'' episode "Missing Hours" (1988). He also recorded ''Gravity'', a modestly popular crossover album released on his new host label Scotti Bros., and the 1986 top 10 hit single "Living in America" (written by Dan Hartman), which was featured prominently in the ''Rocky IV'' film and soundtrack. Brown performed the song in the film at Apollo Creed's final fight, shot in the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and was credited as "The Godfather of Soul." In 1987, Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance for "Living in America." Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B; music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity."

In 1988, Brown worked with the production team Full Force on the hip-hop influenced album ''I'm Real'', which spawned a #5 R&B; hit single, "Static". Meanwhile, the drum break from the second version of the original 1969 hit "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" (the recording included on the compilation album ''In the Jungle Groove'') became so popular at hip hop dance parties (especially for breakdance) during the late 1970s and early 1980s that hip hop founding father Kurtis Blow called the song "the national anthem of hip hop".

1990s to the 2000s

After a stint in prison during the late 1980s, Brown released the album ''Love Overdue'', with the new single "Move On". Brown also released the 1991 four-CD box set ''Star Time'', which included music spanning his four-decade career at that time. Nearly all of his earlier LPs were re-released on CD, often with additional tracks and commentary by experts on Brown's music. In 1991, Brown appeared in MC Hammer's video "Too Legit to Quit" (or "2 Legit 2 Quit"), someone Hammer idolized. In 1993, James Brown released the album ''Universal James'', which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder", "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina". In 1995, the live album ''Live at the Apollo 1995'' was released, featuring the new studio track "Respect Me", which was released as a single that same year. Brown followed up this single with the megamix "Hooked on Brown" that was released as a single in 1996. Brown's later LP releases during this time included the 1998 studio album ''I'm Back'' that featured the single "Funk on ah Roll", and the 2002 album ''The Next Step'' that featured the single "Killing is Out, School is In," both produced and co-written by Derrick Monk. Brown participated in the PBS ''American Masters'' television documentary ''James Brown: Soul Survivor'', which was directed by Jeremy Marre.

Although Brown had various run-ins with the law, he continued to perform and record regularly, and he also made appearances in television shows and films, such as ''Blues Brothers 2000'', and sporting events, such as his 2000 appearance at the World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event ''SuperBrawl X''. In Brown's appearance at the SuperBrawl X event, he danced alongside wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller, whose character was based on Brown, during his in ring skit with The Maestro. Brown was featured in Tony Scott's 2001 short film, ''Beat the Devil'', alongside Clive Owen, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson. Brown also made a cameo appearance in the 2002 Jackie Chan film ''The Tuxedo'', in which Chan was required to finish Brown's act after Brown was accidentally knocked out by Chan. In 2002, Brown appeared in ''Undercover Brother'', playing the role as himself.

Brown appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert on July 6, 2005, where he performed a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". He also performed a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, a week earlier on the United Kingdom chat show ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''. Before his death, Brown was scheduled to perform a duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" for her new album ''Venus'', scheduled for release in early 2007. In 2006, Brown continued his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour", his last concert tour where he performed all over the world. His final U.S. performance was in San Francisco on August 20, 2006, as headliner at the Festival of the Golden Gate (Foggfest) on the Great Meadow at Fort Mason. His last shows were greeted with positive reviews, and one of his final concert appearances at the Irish Oxegen festival in Punchestown in 2006 was performed for a record crowd of 80,000 people. Brown's last televised appearance was at his induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2006, before his death the following month.

James Brown Revue

For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters.

Concert introduction

Before James Brown appeared on stage, his personal MC gave him an elaborate introduction accompanied by drumrolls, as the MC worked in Brown's various sobriquets along with the names of many of his hit songs. The introduction by Fats Gonder, captured on Brown's 1963 album ''Live at the Apollo'' album, is a representative example:

So now ladies and gentlemen it is star time, are you ready for star time? Thank you and thank you very kindly. It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you at this particular time, national and international[ly] known as the hardest working man in show business, the man that sings "I'll Go Crazy" ... "Try Me" ... "You've Got the Power" ... "Think" ... "If You Want Me" ... "I Don't Mind" ... "Bewildered" ...the million dollar seller, "Lost Someone" ... the very latest release, "Night Train" ... let's everybody "Shout and Shimmy" ... Mr. Dynamite, the amazing Mr. Please Please himself, the star of the show, James Brown and The Famous Flames!!

Among the MCs who worked with Brown and his revue through the years, Brown's most famous MC was Danny Ray, who appeared on stage with him for over 30 years.

Concert repertoire and format

James Brown's performances were famous for their intensity and length. His own stated goal was to "give people more than what they came for — make them tired, 'cause ''that's'' what they came for.'" Brown's concert repertoire consisted mostly of his own hits and recent songs, with a few R&B; covers mixed in. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.

A James Brown concert typically included a performance by a featured vocalist, such as Vicki Anderson or Marva Whitney, and an instrumental feature for the band, which sometimes served as the opening act for the show. Although Brown released many live albums, ''Say It Live & Loud: Live in Dallas 08.26.68'', released by Polydor in 1998, was one of only a few audio recordings that captured a performance of the James Brown Revue from beginning to end.

Cape routine

A trademark feature of Brown's stage shows, usually during the song "Please, Please, Please", involved Brown dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, prompting the show's longtime MC, Danny Ray, to come out, drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage after he had worked himself to exhaustion during his performance. As Brown was escorted off the stage by the MC, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames, continued singing the background vocals "Please, please don't go-oh-oh". Brown would then shake off the cape and stagger back to the microphone to perform an encore. Brown's routine was inspired by a similar one used by the professional wrestler Gorgeous George.

Brown performs a version of the cape routine over the closing credits of the film ''Blues Brothers 2000''.

As band leader

Brown demanded extreme discipline, perfection and precision from his musicians and dancers — right down to when performers in his Revue showed up for rehearsals all the way to whether members wore the right "uniform" or "costume" for concert performances. During an interview conducted by Terri Gross during the NPR segment "Fresh Air" with Maceo Parker, a former saxophonist in Brown's band for most of the 1960s and part of the 1970s and 1980s, Parker offered his experience with the discipline that Brown demanded of the band:

Brown also had a practice of directing, correcting and assessing fines on members of his band who broke his rules, such as wearing unshined shoes, dancing out of sync or showing up late on stage. During some of his concert performances, Brown danced in front of his band with his back to the audience as he slid across the floor, flashing hand signals and splaying his pulsating fingers to the beat of the music. Although audiences thought Brown's dance routine was part of his act, this practice was actually his way of pointing to the offending member of his troupe who played or sang the wrong note or committed some other infraction. Brown used his splayed fingers and hand signals to alert the offending person of the fine that person must pay to him for breaking his rules.

Social activism

Civil unrest and self-empowerment

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Brown was renowned for his social activism. In 1966, he released the single "Don't Be a Drop-Out" as a lesson to young students who had thoughts of dropping out. He later made public speeches in front of dozens of children and advocated the importance of education in school. In 1967, he issued a patriotic single, "America is My Home", which was a "rap" about how he felt people, particularly in the African-American community, were neglecting the country that he said "could give (them) opportunities" explaining how at one time he was shining shoes and the next, he was greeting the President of the United States as he did when President Lyndon B. Johnson thanked him for donating money to school drop-out prevention programs.

In 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Brown released "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" following pressure from fans to take a stance on the civil rights movement, an issue he had avoided up until this point. It became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Brown later said of it in his 1986 autobiography “The song is obsolete now... But it was necessary to teach pride then, and I think the song did a lot of good for a lot of people... People called "Black and Proud" militant and angry - maybe because of the line about dying on your feet instead of living on your knees. But really, if you listen to it, it sounds like a children's song. That's why I had children in it, so children who heard it could grow up feeling pride... The song cost me a lot of my crossover audience. The racial makeup at my concerts was mostly black after that. I don't regret it, though, even if it was misunderstood.”

He performed in front of a televised audience in Boston the day after Dr. King's death. Brown is often given credit for preventing rioting with the performance. Mayor Kevin White strongly restrained the Boston Police from cracking down on minor violence and protests after the assassination, and Boston religious and community leaders worked to keep tempers from flaring. Also, White arranged to have the Brown performance broadcast multiple times on Boston's public television station, WGBH, thus keeping many potential rioters off the streets, watching the concert for free. Brown demanded $60,000 for "gate" fees (money he thought would be lost from ticket sales on account of the concert being broadcast for free), and then threatened to go public about the secret arrangement when the city balked at paying up after the concert, news of which would have been a political death-blow to White, and possibly sparked riots on its own. White successfully lobbied the behind-the-scenes power-brokering group known as "The Vault" to come up with money for Brown's gate fee and other social programs; The Vault contributed $100,000 to such programs, and Brown received $15,000 from them via the city. White persuaded management at the Boston Garden to give up their share of receipts to make up the difference. The story is documented in the PBS film "The Night James Brown Saved Boston".

Afterwards, President Johnson urged Brown to visit Washington, D.C. to greet inner-city residents there performing at a benefit concert there and expressed the notion that violence "wasn't the way to go". Many in the black community felt that Brown was speaking out to them more than some major leaders in the country, a sentiment that was strengthened with the release of his groundbreaking landmark single, "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud".

Brown continued performing benefit concerts for various civil rights organizations including Jesse Jackson's PUSH and The Black Panther Party's Breakfast program throughout the early-1970s. Brown also continued to release socially conscious singles such as "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)" (1969), "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved" (1971), "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing" (1972), "King Heroin" (1972), "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1974) and "Reality" (1975). The week before his death, Brown took time to give Christmas presents to an orphanage in Atlanta.

Personal life

At the end of his life, James Brown lived in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. James Brown was diagnosed with diabetes at a very early stage of his life. Brown was once diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery. Regardless of his health, Brown maintained his reputation as the "hardest working man in show business" by keeping up with his grueling performance schedule. However, James Brown led as colorful a life on stage with his performances, as he had off stage with his troubles with the law and his last marriage in particular.

Marriages and children

Brown was married three times — Velma Warren (1953–1969, divorced), Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins (22 October 1970–10 January 1981, divorced) and Adrienne Lois Rodriguez (born 9 March 1950) (1984–1996, wife's death). He also had a relationship with Tomi Rae Hynie (2001–2004). From these and other relationships, James Brown had five sons — Teddy Brown (1954–1973), Terry Brown, and Larry Brown, Daryl Brown (a member of Brown's backing band) and James Joseph Brown II, in addition to four daughters — Lisa Brown, Dr. Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown. Brown also had eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Brown's eldest son, Teddy, died in a car crash on 14 June 1973. According to a 22 August 2007 article published in the British newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'', DNA tests indicate that Brown also fathered at least three illegitimate children. The only one of them who has been identified is LaRhonda Pettit (born 1962), a retired air stewardess and teacher who lives in Houston.

JB Skate Culture

There is a rollerskating art form called JB created and dedicated to James Brown in Chicago, Illinois. It is a culture that has grown over three decades that has a distinct style that is recognized by specific moves, tempo, and attitude. The music is created by local Chicago musical producers who personally love James Brown and his music, many of them roller skate themselves. The music starts with taking samples of original James Brown songs and then the producer puts his or her creative spin on it.

Brown-Hynie marriage controversy

Much controversy surrounds Tomi Rae Hynie's marriage to James Brown on December 23, 2002, officiated by Rev. Larry Fryer. Brown's longtime attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, reported that the marriage between Brown and Hynie was not valid because Hynie was married at that time to Javed Ahmed, a Bangladeshi whom Hynie claimed married her for a Green Card in an immigration fraud. Although Hynie stated that her marriage to Javed Ahmed was later annulled, this annulment did not occur until April 2004. In an interview on CNN with Larry King, Hynie produced a 2001 marriage certificate as proof of her marriage to James Brown, but she did not provide King with court records pointing to an annulment of her marriage to him or to Ahmed.

According to Dallas, Brown was angry and hurt that Hynie concealed her prior marriage from him, and that Brown moved to file for annulment from Hynie. Dallas added that, although Hynie's marriage to Javed Ahmed was annulled after she married James Brown, the Brown-Hynie marriage was not valid under South Carolina law because Brown and Hynie did not remarry after the annulment. In August 2003, Brown took out a full-page public notice in ''Variety Magazine'' featuring Hynie, James II and himself on vacation at Disney World to announce that he and Hynie were going their separate ways.

Paternity of James Brown II

In a separate CNN interview, Debra Opri, another Brown family attorney, revealed to Larry King that Brown wanted a DNA test performed after his death to confirm the paternity of James Brown II — not for Brown's sake, but for the sake of the other family members. In April 2007, Hynie selected a guardian ad litem whom she wants appointed by the court to represent her son, James Brown II, in the paternity proceedings.

Legal issues

Brown's personal life was marred by several brushes with the law:

At the age of 16, he was arrested for theft and served 3 years in prison.

In 1988, Brown was arrested following an alleged high-speed car chase on Interstate 20 along the Georgia-South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer, along with various drug-related and driving offenses. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released in 1991 after serving only three years of his sentence. Brown's FBI file, released to ''The Washington Post'' in 2007 under the Freedom of Information Act, related Brown's claim that the high-speed chase did not occur as claimed by the police, and that local police shot at his car several times during an incident of police harassment and assaulted him after his arrest. Local authorities found no merit to Brown's accusations.

In another incident, the police were summoned to Brown's residence on July 3, 2000 after he was accused of charging an electric company repairman with a steak knife when the repairman visited Brown's house to investigate a complaint about having no lights at the residence.

In 2003, Brown was pardoned by the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services for past crimes that he was convicted of committing in South Carolina.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was repeatedly arrested for domestic violence:

Adrienne Rodriguez, his third wife, had him arrested four times between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s on charges of assault.

In January 2004, Brown was arrested in South Carolina on a domestic violence charge after Tomi Rae Hynie accused him of pushing her to the floor during an argument at their home, where she suffered scratches and bruises to her right arm and hip. Later that year in June 2004, Brown pleaded no contest to the domestic violence incident, but served no jail time. Instead, Brown was required to forfeit a US$1,087 bond as punishment.

In January 2005, a woman named Jacque Hollander filed a lawsuit against James Brown, which stemmed from an alleged 1988 forcible rape. When the case was initially heard before a judge in 2002, Hollander's claims against Brown were dismissed by the court as the limitations period for filing the suit had expired. Hollander claimed that stress from the alleged assault later caused her to contract Graves' Disease, a thyroid condition. Hollander claimed that the incident took place in South Carolina while she was employed by Brown as a publicist. Hollander alleged that, during her ride in a van with Brown, Brown pulled over to the side of the road and sexually assaulted her while he threatened her with a shotgun. In her case against Brown, Hollander entered as evidence a DNA sample and a polygraph result, but the evidence was not considered due to the limitations defense. Hollander later attempted to bring her case before the Supreme Court but nothing became of her complaint.

Death and aftermath

Death

On December 23, 2006, James Brown, in ill health, showed up at his dentist's office in Atlanta, Georgia several hours later than his appointment for dental implant work. During that visit, Brown's dentist observed that Brown looked "very bad ... weak and dazed." Instead of performing the dental work, the dentist advised Brown to see a doctor right away about his medical condition.

Brown checked in at the Emory Crawford Long Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24, 2006 for a medical evaluation of his condition, and he was admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment. According to Charles Bobbit, Brown's longtime personal manager and friend, Brown had been sick and suffering with a noisy cough since he returned from a November trip to Europe. Bobbit also added that it was characteristic of Brown to never tell or complain to anyone that he was sick, and that Brown frequently performed during illness. Although Brown had to cancel upcoming shows in Waterbury, Connecticut and Englewood, New Jersey, Brown was confident that the doctor would discharge him from the hospital in time to perform the New Year's Eve shows.

For the New Year's celebrations, Brown was scheduled to perform at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey and at the B. B. King Blues Club in New York, in addition to performing a song live on CNN for the Anderson Cooper New Year's Eve special. However, Brown remained hospitalized, and his medical condition worsened throughout that day.

On December 25, 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 AM EST (06:45 UTC) from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia, with his agent Frank Copsidas and his friend Paul Sargent at his bedside. According to Sargent, Brown stuttered "I'm going away tonight", and then Brown took three long, quiet breaths and fell asleep before dying.

Memorial services

After Brown's death on Christmas day, Brown's relatives and friends, a host of celebrities and thousands of fans attended public memorial services at the Apollo Theater in New York on December 28, 2006 and at the James Brown Arena on December 30, 2006 in Augusta, Georgia. A separate, private memorial service was also held in North Augusta, South Carolina on December 29, 2006, which was attended by Brown's family and close friends. Celebrities who attended Brown's public and/or private memorial services included Michael Jackson, Jimmy Cliff, Joe Frazier, Buddy Guy, Ice Cube, Ludacris, Dr. Dre, Little Richard, Dick Gregory, MC Hammer, Prince, Jesse Jackson, Ice-T, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bootsy Collins, LL Cool J, Lil Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, 50 Cent, Stevie Wonder, and Don King, among others. All of the public and private memorial services were officiated by Rev. Al Sharpton.

Brown's public and private memorial ceremonies were elaborate, complete with costume changes for Brown and videos featuring him in concert performances. Brown's body, which was placed in a Promethean casket, which is bronze polished to a golden shine, was driven through the streets of New York to the Apollo Theater in a white, glass-encased horse-drawn carriage. In Augusta, Georgia, the procession for Brown's public memorial visited Brown's statue as the procession made its way to the James Brown Arena. During the public memorial at the James Brown Arena, nachos and pretzels were served to mourners, as a video showed Brown's last performance in Augusta, Georgia and the Ray Charles version of "Georgia On My Mind" played soulfully in the background. Brown's last backup band, The Soul Generals, also played the music of Brown's hits during the memorial service at the James Brown Arena. The group was joined by Bootsy Collins on bass, with MC Hammer performing a dance in James Brown style. Former Temptations lead singer Ali-Ollie Woodson performed "Walk Around Heaven All Day" at the memorial services.

Last will and testament

James Brown signed his last will and testament on August 1, 2000, before Strom Thurmond, Jr., an attorney for Brown's estate. The irrevocable trust, separate and apart from Brown's will, was created on Brown's behalf in 2000 by his attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, who was named as one of three personal representatives of Brown's estate. Brown's will covered the disposition of his personal assets, such as clothing, cars and jewelry, while Brown's irrevocable trust covered the disposition of music rights, business assets of James Brown Enterprises and Brown's Beech Island estate in South Carolina.

During the reading of Brown's will on January 11, 2007, Thurmond revealed that Brown's six adult living children (Terry Brown, Larry Brown, Daryl Brown, Yamma Brown Lumar, Deanna Brown Thomas and Venisha Brown) were named in the will. Hynie and James II were not mentioned in the will as parties who could inherit Brown's property. Brown's will was signed ten months before James II was born and more than a year before Brown's marriage to Tomi Rae Hynie. Like Brown's will, his irrevocable trust also did not mention Hynie and James II as recipients of Brown's property. The irrevocable trust was established before, and had not been amended since, the birth of James II.

On January 24, 2007, Brown's children filed a lawsuit against the personal representatives of Brown's estate. In their petition, Brown's children asked the court to remove the personal representatives of Brown's estate (including Brown's attorney and estate's trustee, Albert "Buddy" Dallas) and appoint a special administrator because of perceived impropriety and alleged mismanagement of Brown's assets. To challenge the validity of the will and irrevocable trust, Hynie also filed a lawsuit against Brown's estate on January 31, 2007. In her lawsuit against Brown's estate, Hynie asked the court to recognize her as Brown's widow, and she also asked the court to appoint a special administrator for the estate.

Burial at temporary site

After the public and private memorial services in late December 2006, James Brown's body remained in his casket for a time in a temperature-controlled room at his estate. Brown's casket was later moved to an undisclosed location, while his children and Tomi Rae Hynie became embroiled in disputes about Brown's final resting place and matters related to probating his will. More than ten weeks after Brown's death and the public and private memorial services, Brown's children and Hynie decided on a temporary burial site for James Brown. Brown was buried on March 10, 2007 in a crypt at the home of Deanna Brown Thomas, one of Brown's daughters who also held a private ceremony for the temporary burial. The private ceremony for the temporary burial, officiated by Al Sharpton, was attended by Brown's family and a host of friends.

According to Brown's family, Brown's body will remain buried at the temporary site while a public mausoleum is built for him and a decision has been made for Brown's final resting place. To turn Brown's estate into a visitor attraction, Brown's family plans to consult with the family of Elvis Presley for guidance about converting the estate into an attraction similar to Graceland.

Dallas, Brown's long time attorney and one of the trustees for Brown's estate, did not attend the private service for the temporary burial. He expressed his disapproval and disappointment with the temporary burial arrangement with the comment "Mr. Brown's not deserving of anyone's backyard." According to Dallas, the trustees for Brown's estate "had made arrangements for Brown to be laid to rest at no cost at a 'very prominent memorial garden in Augusta.'"

Honors, awards and dedications

James Brown received a variety of awards and honors throughout his lifetime and after his death. At one city, fans voted to honor Brown by naming a bridge after the entertainer. In 1993, the City Council of Steamboat Springs, Colorado conducted a poll of its residents to choose a new name for the bridge that crossed the Yampa River on Shield Drive. The winning name with 7,717 votes was "James Brown SoulCenter of the Universe Bridge". The bridge was officially dedicated in September 1993, and James Brown appeared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the event. Although a petition was started by a local group of ranchers to return the name of the bridge to "Stockbridge" for historical reasons, the ranchers backed off after citizens defeated their efforts because of the popularity of Brown's name. Brown returned to Steamboat Springs, Colorado on July 4, 2002 for an outdoor music festival, performing with other bands such as The String Cheese Incident.

During his long career, James Brown received several prestigious music industry awards and honors. In 1983, Brown was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In addition, Brown was named as one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction dinner in New York on January 23, 1986. However, the members of his original vocal group, The Famous Flames, Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry, Bobby Bennett, and Lloyd Stallworth, were not. On February 25, 1992, Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards. Exactly a year later, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards. A ceremony was held for Brown on January 10, 1997 to honor him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On June 15, 2000, Brown was honored as an inductee for the New York Songwriters Hall of Fame. On August 6, 2002, James Brown was honored as the first BMI Urban Icon at the BMI Urban Awards. His BMI accolades include an impressive ten R&B; Awards and six Pop Awards. On November 14, 2006, Brown was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and he was one of several inductees who performed at the ceremony. In recognition of his accomplishments as an entertainer, Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors on December 7, 2003. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked James Brown as #7 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In an article for ''Rolling Stone'', critic Robert Christgau cited Brown as "the greatest musician of the rock era".

Brown was also honored in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia for his philanthropy and civic activities. On November 20, 1993, Mayor Charles DeVaney of Augusta held a ceremony to dedicate a section of 9th Street between Broad and Twiggs Streets, renamed "James Brown Boulevard", in the entertainer's honor. On May 6, 2005, as a 72nd birthday present for Brown, the city of Augusta unveiled a life-sized bronze James Brown statue on Broad Street. The statue was to have been dedicated a year earlier, but the ceremony was put on hold because of a domestic abuse charge that Brown faced at the time. In 2005, Charles "Champ" Walker and the We Feel Good Committee went before the County commission and received apporoval to change Augusta's slogan to "We Feel Good". Afterwards, Official renamed the city's civic center the James Brown Arena, and James Brown attended a ceremony for the unveiling of the namesake center on October 15, 2006.

On December 30, 2006, during the public memorial service at the James Brown Arena, Dr. Shirley A.R. Lewis, president of Paine College, a historically black college in Augusta, Georgia, bestowed posthumously upon Brown an honorary doctorate in recognition and honor of his many contributions to the school in its times of need. Brown was scheduled originally to receive the honorary doctorate from Paine College during its May 2007 commencement.

During the 49th Annual Grammy Awards presentation held on February 11, 2007, James Brown's famous cape was draped over a microphone at the end of a montage by ''Danny Ray'' (his M.C. for over 30 years), in honor of notable persons in the music industry, including Brown, who died during the previous year. Earlier that evening, Christina Aguilera delivered an impassioned performance of one of Brown's hits, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" followed by a standing ovation, while Chris Brown performed a dance routine in honor of James Brown.

Tributes

As a tribute to James Brown, the Rolling Stones covered the song, "I'll Go Crazy" from Brown's ''Live at the Apollo'' album, during its 2007 European tour. On September 12, 2007, barely nine months after James Brown's death, Bobby Byrd, the original leader and founder of The Famous Flames vocal group along with Brown, died of cancer at 73 years old. Jimmy Page has remarked, "He [James Brown] was almost a musical genre in his own right and he changed and moved forward the whole time so people were able to learn from him."

On December 22, 2007, the first annual "Tribute Fit For the King of King Records" in honor of James Brown was held at the Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky. The tribute, organized by Bootsy Collins, featured appearances by Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D of Public Enemy, The Soul Generals, Buckethead, Freekbass, Triage and many of Brown's surviving family members. Comedian Michael Coyer was the MC for the event. During the show, the mayor of Cincinnati proclaimed December 22 as James Brown Day. It has been said that a biopic is in the works about Brown; Spike Lee has signed on to direct, with Brian Grazer producing and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth writing the script. Usher and Fergie are interested in being in the project.

In 2008, Aaron Smith (aka Shwayze), an American rapper, titled the 8th track of his self-titled album "James Brown is Dead" as a tribute to the Godfather of Soul.

Discography

Notable albums

Four of James Brown's albums appeared on the ''Rolling Stone Magazine's'' 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time:

''Live at the Apollo'' (1963) (#24)

''In the Jungle Groove'' (1986) (#330)

''Star Time'' (1991) (#79)

''20 All-Time Greatest Hits!'' (1991) (#414)

In addition, Brown's 1970 double album ''Sex Machine'' was ranked 96th in a 2005 survey held by British television station Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. Other notable albums, originally released as double LP records, feature extensive playing by The J.B.'s and served as prolific sources of samples for later musical artists, including:

''Get On the Good Foot'' (1972)

''The Payback'' (1974)

''Hell'' (1974)

The 1968 ''Live at the Apollo, Vol. II'' double LP album was notably influential on musicians at the time of its release. This classic album remains an example of Brown's energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as providing a means of documenting the metamorphosis of his music from the R&B; and soul styles into hard funk.

Notable singles

Until the early 1970s, Brown was famous mostly for his road show and singles, rather than his albums (with his live LPs as a major exception). Six of his hit singles appeared on the ''Rolling Stone Magazine's'' 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time:

"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) (#72)

"I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965) (#78)

"It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966) (#123)

"Please, Please, Please" (1956) (#142)

"Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) (#305)

"Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" (1970) (#326)

Complete singles reissue

In 2006, Hip-O Select Records began a multi-volume reissue of James Brown's complete singles (both A-sides and B-sides) on CD. As of March 2011, ten volumes have been released, covering the periods 1956–1960, 1960–1963, 1964–1965, 1966–1967, 1967–1969, 1969–1970, 1970–1972, 1972–1973, 1973–1975 and 1975-1979. The liner notes included in the CD release of Volume Ten indicate that an eleventh volume is in the works.

Filmography

''The T.A.M.I. Show'' (1964) (documentary)

''Ski Party'' (1965)

''The Phynx'' (1970)

''Black Caesar'' (1973) (soundtrack only)

''Slaughter's Big Ripoff'' (1974) (soundtrack only)

''The Blues Brothers'' (1980)

''Doctor Detroit'' (1983)

''Rocky IV'' (1985)

''When We Were Kings'' (1996) (documentary)

''Soulmates'' (1997)

''Blues Brothers 2000'' (1998)

portrayed by Carlton Smith in ''Liberty Heights'' (1999)

''Holy Man'' (1998)

''Undercover Brother'' (2002)

''The Tuxedo'' (2002)

''The Hire: Beat The Devil'' (2002) (short film)

''Paper Chasers'' (2003) (documentary)

''Sid Bernstein Presents...'' (2005) (documentary)

''Glastonbury'' (2006) (documentary)

''Life on the Road with Mr. and Mrs. Brown'' (2007) (documentary; release pending)

''I Got The Feelin': James Brown in the '60s'' (three-DVD set featuring the film ''The Night James Brown Saved Boston'', ''Live at the Boston Garden 1968'' and ''Live at the Apollo '68''

''Soul Power'' (2009) (documentary)

In other media

Games

In the video game ''World of Warcraft'', Bronjahm (the first boss character in the "Forge of Souls" level) contributes music to the game, refers to himself as "the Godfather of Souls", and accompanies each new music cue with a James Brown reference.

In ''The Godfather 2'' video game, Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" plays behind the end credits.

A different version of "I Got You (I Feel Good)", recorded in 1974, is playable in the rhythm video game ''Rock Band 3''. In addition, "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine (Pt. 1)" is available for download across the series, while "Super Bad (Pts. 1 & 2)" was released later, only for the third game.

References

; Footnotes

; Other references

Sussman, M. (producer). (2006, December 25). Arts: Soul classics by James Brown (multimedia presentation). ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 9, 2007.

Slide show: James Brown through the years. (2006, December 25). ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 9, 2007.

Lethem, J. (2006, June 12). Being James Brown. ''Rolling Stone Magazine''. Retrieved January 14, 2007.

''Rolling Stone Magazine'' audio interview with Jonathan Lethem about James Brown and his music. ''Rolling Stone Magazine''. Retrieved January 9, 2007.

External links

Profile of James Brown at Soul Evolution

''The Times'' Obituary for James Brown

James Brown, 1933-2006. News and multimedia archive from The Augusta Chronicle

James Brown's Musicians Reflect On His Legacy – article from ''Down Beat Magazine''

Biography: James Brown and the Black Arts movement of the 60s and 70s (biography at Funky-Stuff.com).

James Brown biography and concert review in cosmopolis.ch

RBMA Radio On Demand – Across 135th Street – Volume 7 – Tribute to James Brown - Chairman Mao (RBMA, Egotrip)

1980 Interview with James Brown and the Rev. Al Sharpton by Jon Alpert on Democracy Now

James Brown concert and interviews on NPR Music

James Brown radiostream

James Brown funeral program Digital Library of Georgia

The James Brown SuperFan Club

Category:1933 births Category:2006 deaths Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:African American singers Category:American composers Category:American dancers Category:American drummers Category:American funk singers Category:American keyboardists Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American people convicted of assault Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American record producers Category:American robbers Category:American rhythm and blues guitarists Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American singers of Native American descent Category:American soul singers Category:American male singers Category:Apache people Category:Cancer survivors Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:The Famous Flames members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Gullah Category:Infectious disease deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:King Records artists Category:Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Musicians from South Carolina Category:People convicted of drug offenses Category:People from Augusta, Georgia Category:People from Barnwell County, South Carolina Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Songwriters from South Carolina Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Polydor Records artists

am:ጄምስ ብራውን ar:جيمس براون an:James Brown bg:Джеймс Браун ca:James Brown cs:James Brown cy:James Brown da:James Brown de:James Brown et:James Brown es:James Brown eo:James Brown fa:جیمز براون fr:James Brown ga:James Brown gd:James Brown gl:James Brown ko:제임스 브라운 hr:James Brown io:James Brown id:James Brown it:James Brown he:ג'יימס בראון ka:ჯეიმზ ბრაუნი la:Iacobus Brown lv:Džeimss Brauns lt:James Brown hu:James Brown nl:James Brown ja:ジェームス・ブラウン no:James Brown nn:James Brown oc:James Brown pms:James Brown pl:James Brown pt:James Brown ro:James Brown ru:Браун, Джеймс scn:James Brown simple:James Brown sk:James Brown sl:James Brown sr:Џејмс Браун sh:James Brown fi:James Brown sv:James Brown ta:ஜேம்ஸ் ப்ரௌன் th:เจมส์ บราวน์ tg:Ҷеймс Браун tr:James Brown uk:Джеймс Браун vi:James Brown yo:James Brown zh:詹姆士·布朗