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Funeral Arrangements Set and More
James Brown- Boston 1968
By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff December 26, 2006
James Brown will be mourned by millions around the world this week as one of the great musical innovators of the 20th century. But in Boston, he will be remembered by many as the man who helped prevent the city from burning down the night after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
On April 4, 1968, the day before Brown was scheduled to play a concert at the Boston Garden, King was shot to death in Memphis. In Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, rioters set fire to white-owned businesses.
In Boston, Mayor Kevin White, then just 38 years old and four months into his first term, gathered his aides at City Hall and prepared for the worst.
"It was incredibly tense," said John Henning, the longtime television broadcaster who, in 1968, was in the fifth year of his career.
According to a Boston Globe account that weekend: "By noon Friday it appeared that Boston's black community of 80,000 was poised for a violent upheaval. Roving bands in Roxbury, North Dorchester , and the South End inflicted injuries on a dozen persons, set fire to one store , and looted seven others."
Fearful of more violence, the managers at the Garden decided to cancel Brown's concert, and White was faced with a dilemma, according to an account in the book " Common Ground, " by J. Anthony Lukas . If Brown didn't go on, there wouldn't be enough time to get the word out and thousands of angry black teenage fans would be left at the Garden with nothing to do.
Only this time, "it'll be in the heart of downtown," Lukas quoted Councilor Tom Atkins as saying.
In a telephone interview yesterday, US Representative Barney Frank, who was White's aide in the 1960s, said city officials believed Boston could potentially have a citywide riot among blacks and whites.
"You get a bunch of 17-year-olds together you never know what's going to happen," said Frank, a Democrat from Newton.
White made a decision. He would reinstate the concert, but would try to suppress attendance, get a television station to carry it live, and then appeal to youths to stay home and watch it.
But there was a catch. That Friday, Brown taped a television show in New York and was under contract not to appear on TV before it aired. If the concert at the Garden were broadcast live, it would cost him a bundle.
According to Lukas, who reconstructed events from interviews with the participants: Atkins met Brown at the airport, and explained the situation as the pair rode toward downtown in a limousine. "No way," Brown shouted. "They'll sue me in New York."
"James, James," pleaded Atkins. "We'll work this out! But right now you have an opportunity to help save this city."
Finally Brown relented -- at a cost. He demanded $60,000 to cover his expenses. White, now out of options, agreed, Lukas wrote.
Only 2,000 people showed up for the concert -- the Garden held 14,000. When White got on stage, the crowd was subdued.
White, according to a Globe report on the concert, urged the audience at home and in the Garden "to make Rev. Dr. King's dream a reality in Boston. . . . No matter what any other community might do -- we in Boston will honor Dr. King in peace."
"Brown sang and danced, and as usual thrilled his audience. But he also talked to them and for this is being credited with helping to avert potential disaster," according to the Globe.
The concert aired live on Channel 2 and was then immediately rebroadcast, Frank recalled yesterday. Across Boston, people stayed home and watched.
"I remember going through the South End and every window seemed to be watching James Brown," said Peter Wolf , the lead singer of the J. Geils Band.
Brown brought calm to a simmering city.
"It really prevented the city from blowing up," said Henning.
Said Frank: "You never know what might have happened if they all came down."
Globe correspondent Steve Morse contributed to this story. Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com 
Funeral Arrangements Have Been Set
NEW YORK -- James Brown's music career comes full circle Thursday when his body is brought to rest on the stage of the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he made his explosive debut, and the world changed to his beat.
The public will be permitted to visit the Apollo to have one more look at a man who steered modern music toward the rhythm-and-blues, funk, hip-hop, disco and rap beats popular, said the Rev. Al Sharpton on Tuesday. The reverend has been a close friend of Brown for decades.
"It would almost be unthinkable for a man who lived such a sensational life to go away quietly," Sharpton said in an interview from Georgia, where he was making funeral arrangements with Brown's children.
Sharpton said he and the children viewed Brown's body Tuesday.
"I looked at his body. I was walking in half disbelief and sadness but proud," he said. "I couldn't even begin to describe it, to walk around his house and he not be there."
Sharpton said the public Apollo viewing will be followed by a private ceremony Friday in Brown's hometown, Augusta, Ga., and another public ceremony, officiated by Sharpton, a day later at the James Brown Arena there.
"His greatest thrill was always the lines around the Apollo Theater," Sharpton said of the 125th Street landmark. "I felt that James Brown in all the years we talked would have wanted one last opportunity to let the people say goodbye to him and he to the people."
Brown, known as the Godfather of Soul, died of congestive heart failure on Christmas morning in Atlanta at age 73. He had been scheduled to perform on New Year's Eve in Manhattan at B.B. King's blues club.
Sharpton said he and Brown's children talked Tuesday about the moment after the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination when Brown stepped to a microphone and told gathering crowds of angry people to go home.
"And they went home," Sharpton said. "For them to riot for a man who lived a life of peace would send the wrong message. He always said he was surprised and humbled that he had that influence."
Sharpton said Brown was "always very sensitive as to how people could be remembered."
The Apollo began recruiting and showcasing talent in 1934. Early acts included "Pigmeat" Markham and Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Before long, Lena Horne, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin and Brown were making their debuts. Audiences cheered the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Michael Jackson, Fats Waller, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nina Simone. Comedians such as Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor performed, too.
Sharpton said he had been like a son to Brown since they met in 1973, introduced by Brown's son, Teddy, shortly before the teenager died in a car crash.
He said the son had wanted to encourage his father's support for Sharpton's youth organization, leading Brown to begin a lifelong commitment to Sharpton's civil rights projects.
"I became the son he lost," Sharpton said.
Sharpton said Brown always knew his place in history.
"He used to tell me, `There are two American originals, Elvis and me,"' Sharpton said. "'Elvis is gone, and I've got to carry on."'
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Amy Goodman's Democracy Now Program covers James Brown. Watch/Listen Here.
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2 comments:
AI,
Great story you posted about James Brown and the Boston Garden. ooops, I'm about to tell you how old I am.
I was in Boston at the time. I was one of those black teenagers that Kevin White was scared of at that time. I actually attended the Boston Garden event. I knew the (Black) City Councilor Thomas Atkins very well. I even got a chance to meet James Brown that night. All of the accounts in the article from my understanding are very accurate. Thomas Atkins told me the same stories years ago. If it were not for James Brown and his passioned words for blacks not to set fire to their own neighborhoods and communities, and to "be cool", (Thats how we spoke at the time) Boston for sure would have a race riot on its hands. But James Brown was more than Mr. Please, Please. He was a Brotha who understood the meaning of power, economic development, and self sufficiency and pride. Through his words, songs, and deeds, James Brown took blacks to another level. James Brown and Stokley Carmicheal took us from Negro to black. All I can say is thank you James Brown, thank you for buying radio stations, and providing HOPE for so many black youth, thank you for writing lyrics in your 1960's and 70's that energized generatons. Yes, you will be missed.
Say it Loud, "I'm Black and I'm Proud"
Thanks L.N.
Don't worry about the age thing... that story was well worth the age revelation.
Yes... I saw James Brown as that same kind of force in American culture (and Black culture in particular). As you mentioned, he was much more than a performer.
Small world.... glad that you had the opportunity to meet Mr. Brown and to be a part of that history.
Brown, to me, articulated the struggles of being a Black man in America. He understood what it meant to be dirt poor. I was once there myself. My early childhood (before my father got me) was marked by trouble and poverty. So when i'm listening to Brown talk about his early struggles in Augusta, it's like listening to myself.
I just wish we could get back to having Black artists like Brown... who understood the importance of conscious uplifting music, and social/political engagement.
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