The Hardest Working Man How James Brown Saved The Soul Of America

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"James Sullivan examines James Brown’s role in saving Boston from the fires and riots that swept the U.S. after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Booked into Boston Garden the night of April 5, 1968, Brown agreed to put the show on live local TV to give would-be rioters reason to stay home. Garden management wanted to cancel, doubtless to avoid rioting in the Garden, but Brown and Boston’s first black city councillor interceded with Mayor Kevin White to prevent cancellation. Sullivan goes further in crediting Brown for keeping the peace than others have, and so doing, he also examines the Godfather of Soul’s life and career in the context of the Civil Rights movement. By 1968, Brown had become “Soul Brother Number One,” and his presence was “a major event, a ritual.” At the same time, the cultural gulf between races was was so wide that the mayor at first “thought the headliner in question was Jim Brown”—the NFL running back. A good record of a pivotal event and a serviceable Brown bio, to boot."