Toward the end of the show, a young fan jumped onto the stage. A police officer pushed him off. More fans jumped on stage, and more police rushed from the wings. It was a dangerous moment...
James Brown took control. He held the police back. “Move on back. I’ll be all right. I’ll be fine,” he said.
The band went stone silent. More fans leaped onstage, mobbing the singer. “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Brown repeated. “You make me look very bad, ‘cause I asked the po-lice to step back and you wouldn’t go down. Now that’s wrong, that’s wrong. You’re not being fair to yourself and me and all your race.”
Back in the spotlight, James Brown said, “Now are we together, or are we ain’t?” He told the drummer, “Hit that thing, man,” and picked up where he left off with ‘Can’t stand it, can’t stand your love.’
The show was then rebroadcast, over and over, and thousands of angry young people stayed home.
The actual PBS special is found here.
Of course racism is alive - look at the DNC - but one way to address it, in part, is to watch The Godfather in Soul in action on a night when Boston could have burned, but it didn't...a black mand saved blacks AND whites.
We need more James Browns nowadays.
