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Article: A BRAND-NEW BAG - In 1968, James Brown stepped into the role of peacemaker for a troubled Boston, just a day after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 9, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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BOOK REVIEW
THE HARDEST WORKING MAN:
How James Brown Saved
the Soul of America
By James Sullivan
Gotham, 244 pp., illustrated, $25
It has come to exemplify James Brown's near-mystical musical
ability: the night he managed, with nothing more than the force of
his personality and the sheer power of his band, to keep an entire
city from rioting. It was April 5, 1968, that most turbulent month
in the most turbulent year in the most turbulent decade of the
American 20th century. A white man had shot Martin Luther King Jr.
dead in Memphis only the day before.
"I AM A MAN," read the placards carried by the striking garbage
workers in Memphis, and, for some, the rioting after King's death
embodied a ...