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.