- Performance Box 6.2 Brown in Boston
- Institutionalized racism in America had reached a dangerous level by the 1960s
- Black musicians formed a strong voice in response to the civil rights movement
- During the 1950s black performers spoke out in the fight for equal rights for black Americans
- Harry Belafonte
- Lena Horne
- Louis Armstrong
- Early 1960s black artists included clear political ideas in their music
- Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come,"
- Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddamn"
- Joe Tex's "The Love You Save"
- Curtis Mayfield's vocal group the Impressions: "People Get Ready" and' 'Keep On Pushing"
- These and other black artists propelled the Black Pride movement forward during the late 1960s
- James Brown single handedly calmed rioting in several cities the night following the King assassination
- Black Americans reacted violently to Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination on April 4, 1968
- The next night Brown gave a concert in Boston that was televised across the country
- He started the show by asking the viewers to be calm and stay in - to not destroy their community
- He reminded black viewers about King's dedication to peaceful change
- Boston and several other cities were relatively quiet that night
- He went to Washington D.C. the next night and gave a speech on television that ended riots there
- James Brown proved that a black musician had the power to bring peace to violent eruption
- He had always maintained, "The music wasn't a part of the revolution. The music was the revolution."
