"Sock It to Me"

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Sun, 5 Jun 2005 01:03:56 -0400,  Wilson Gray
_hwgray at GMAIL.COM_ (mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM)
writes:

>Clearly, neither the white power structure nor the  average person on
>the white street had any idea who Aretha Franklin was or even gave  a
>Roosevelt damn. Aretha Franklin had not crossed over the color line  by
>1967. Q.E.D.



Kermit Schafer, ed _Blooper Parade_ Greenwich CT: Fawcett Publications  Inc.,
1968, no ISBN.  The following appears on page 76 of the Fawcett Gold  Medal
paperback edition

<quote>
DISC JOCKEY:  ". . . .and here now is another million seller sung by  popular
Uretha Franklin...<i>Aretha</i>
</quote>

"Clearly" Kermit Schafer in 1968 expected his readers, the  majority of whom
were your "average person on the white street", to  recognize the name "Aretha
Franklin" instantly.  As for the TV show you  cite, well, Richard Head Esq.
shows up disproportianately often on major TV  networks, both then and now.

For what it is worth, I was invited to a "Motown Party" that was  thrown in
the mostly-white college dormitory I inhabited in 1966-67.


>a black male singer was quoted as saying that, if
>Tom  Jones could make a million dollars a year singing like a black
>man, then  a black man ought to be able to make $50,000 a year singing
>like himself.  Unfortunately, the man was living in a dream.


I don't know the relative chronologies of Jones and Elvis Presley, but I
recall reading that Presley was picked up by record promoters because he was "a
white man who sang like a [black man]".

> Don't you recall that, in the _'Sixties,_ the
>lynching of  blacks and even of some Jews was still a commonplace
>practice?

I will challenge this statement.  While in high school (1959-65) I
conscientiously followed news about race relations, Segregation, Civil  RIghts, etc, in
the South.  During that period I recall reading of exactly  TWO lynchings,
one in 1963 and the other one earlier, both of which were  followed by ferocious
responses by the Federal government.  To the best of  my knowledge, these
were the last lynchings to occur in the United States.   If I am wrong, please be
specific.

This is an important matter.  In the 1960's there was a widespread  belief in
foreign countries that lynching was commonplace in the  US.  This belief,
true or not, had a significant impact on world-wide  reaction to the Vietnam War
(I need only cite Bertrand Russell, who stated in  writing what he thought was
occurring with respect to lynchings, as an  example.)

    - James A. Landau