James Brown made fairly a splash toasting Nixon’s presidency with a efficiency of his civil rights anthem “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud.” The Godfather of Soul took the Nationwide Guard Armory stage alongside Tony Bennett and Connie Francis, whereas Nixon was nowhere to be seen. (The Secret Service had opted to carry Nixon in New York after a Brown live performance held on the Armory three months prior had ended with smashed home windows.)
Nobody in attendance appeared to significantly miss him, although. “Each time the little dynamo commanded, ‘Say It Loud,’ somewhat, black cheering part to the left of stage heart within the $100 seats jumped to its toes to reply again, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’” Jet journal reported of Brown’s set. “Fairly quickly, even just a few whites within the overwhelmingly white viewers discovered themselves caught up within the distinctive Brown model of musical hysteria, and so they, too, have been saying they have been black and so they have been proud.”
Ronald Reagan (1981): A really doubtful begin
You’d hardly keep in mind that MTV launched the identical yr Reagan entered workplace, judging by the listing of celebrities who turned up for his inauguration. Reagan started his presidency with the All-Star Inaugural Gala—produced by a newly Republican Frank Sinatra—with appearances by Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, and plenty of different previous white males I don’t really feel like itemizing.
