On President Barack Obama’s 55th birthday, Glamour has published a powerful essay by the POTUS explaining why feminism is so important to him — not only as a man, but also as a father and husband. The essay also addressed his evolving view on masculinity.
Watch President Barack Obama’s full speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention
Aretha Franklin, The sound of the civil rights movement - From Her Early Years Throughout Her Life
Aretha Franklin (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Kennedy Center Honors 2015
Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. pic.twitter.com/bfASqKlLc5
Aretha Franklin sings at President Barack Obama’s 2009 Inauguration (C-SPAN)
Here an excerpt from “Aretha Franklin: The sound of the civil rights movement” by an article published on BBC.com:
Aretha Franklin grew up in 1950s Detroit, surrounded from childhood by the now-famous faces of the civil rights movement. Her songs would become their anthems.
Her Baptist minister father was the organiser behind the 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom - the largest-ever demonstration for civil rights in the US until the March on Washington later that year, when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr made his “I have a dream” speech.
King was a frequent guest in her father’s home.
At 16 years of age, Franklin went on tour with him, just after recording her first album.
She would sing at King’s funeral a decade later.
King’s daughter, Dr Bernice King, called Franklin a “shining example” of how to use the arts to support social change.
“As a daughter of the movement, she not only used her voice to entertain but to uplift and inspire generations through songs that have become anthems.”
Civil rights activist Rev Jesse Jackson had been friends with Aretha Franklin for more than 60 years
1967’s Respect became the anthem of the civil rights campaign and the feminist movement. Franklin told Elle magazine in 2016 she was “stunned” by its success.
“It was the right song at the right time,” she said.
As she rose in popularity, Franklin did not abandon her sense of activism. She told Elle her contract in the 1960s included the clause that she would never perform for a segregated audience.
Civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson - who was Franklin’s friend for over 60 years - told USA Today she helped pay for many civil rights tours and campaigns while King was alive.
She held free concerts, housed activists and helped them fundraise. Jackson called her “an inspiration, not just an entertainer”.
“She has shared her points of view from the stage for challenged people, to register to vote, to stand up for decency,” he said.
Aretha Franklin shared a special relationship with the Obamas
The Queen of Soul remained a prominent face - and voice - for African American civil rights throughout her life.
In 2015, President Barack Obama said: “American history wells up when Aretha sings.”
“Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll - the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.” Read More
Aretha Franklin’s final public performance | 8/26/2017 ? #RIP
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