"The Godfather of Soul." Born in a small shack in South Carolina, Brown was an extravagantly prolific singer, songwriter, dancer, bandleader, and record producer (Wasserman). He started with gospel, sang rhythm and blues in the 1950s, but by the mid-1970s had become known as a progenitor of funk, “Africanized” music, and songs with social commentary (“James Brown”). Billboard’s R&B charts ranked him #1 of the Top 500 artists. Brown was a lifelong social activist who fought for civil rights, education, and other humanitarian causes, particularly those helping disadvantaged children (Lipsitz).
Charley Pride
(1934-2020)
Son of a Mississippi sharecropper, Charley Pride, started recording songs in the late 1950s while playing baseball and eventually became America’s first widely popular African-American country singer. By the mid-1970s, he was major record company RCA’s best-selling singer since Elvis Presley (Novod). When he played his first major concert, few of the audience knew he was black, and the applause went silent when he arrived on stage. Already knowing he’d have to deal with that sooner or later, he won over the audience by telling them, “Friends, I realize it's a little unique, me coming out here—with a permanent suntan—to sing country and western to you. But that's the way it is" (Syndicated Content).
