James Brown releases Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud

James Brown released Say It Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud on August 7, 1968, weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The song became a defiant Black pride anthem, reached number one on the R&B charts, and helped define the cultural shift from integrationism to Black Power. Its chant became a generational rallying cry and established Brown as one of the most politically important musicians of the era alongside his role as the Godfather of Soul.