The Rev. Al Sharpton had this to say about James Brown, who lay on the stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on Thursday:

"It was James Brown that with one song erased the word negro from our vocabulary forever and made us say it and say it loud, that we were black and we were proud.

"He proved to us if you believe in God and you believe in yourself you can make it no matter what."

If you don't know what I'm referring to, it's his famous 1968 song.

From the NYT story:

James Brown, with a catalog of socially conscious music, including “Say It Loud -- I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which at least one person waiting in line yesterday called “the real black national anthem,” changed America’s collective black consciousness, Mrs. Harper said.

“When he said, ‘Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,’ that was very important for us,” Mrs. (Brenda) Harper said. “At that point, black people as a whole were confused about where we stood in America. But he said, ‘You are beautiful, you are important.’ He made us feel that and believe that.”

Harper first saw Brown perform at the Apollo in 1961, when she was eight years old. She was the first in line for the public viewing of his body on Thursday.

Here's the BBC's photo gallery. This CTV.ca story has video attached and links to a few backgrounders on Brown. My initial post on JB has been updated with some YouTube links.

Addendum

The popularity of Say It Loud among the black militant set of the time may well have cost Brown some of his white audience. Here's what he wrote in his autobiography:

"The white community took it entirely the wrong way, as a kind of aggressive statement meant to induce fear. So negative was the reaction to the song that radio programmers refused to play it on white stations."