If your social feeds are hitting a mournful note today it may be out of respect for a legend. Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin is reportedly in hospice care at home, surrounded by family.
While the world says a little prayer for her – and yes, I’ll be listening to Aretha all day today – it’s worth remembering that she was a lifelong and outspoken champion for civil rights, taking significant risks to her person and fortune to make sure that she was on the right side of history.
Consider this short news item from the December 3, 1970 edition of Jet, in which Franklin is quoted saying that she was prepared to post Angela Davis’s bond while the activist was being held on charges of murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping for allegedly providing guns used by three black convicts and a friend in an aborted attempt to escape a Marin County courtroom. (She was later acquitted. The story shocked a nation; if you’re unfamiliar with it,The Morning Breaks is the definitive book on the incident and her trial.)
“Miss Franklin said, “My daddy (Detroit’s Rev. C.L. Franklin) says I don’t know what I’m doing. Well, I respect him, of course, but I’m going to stick to my beliefs. Angela Davis must go free. I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people. I have the money; I got it from Black people- they’ve made me financially able to have it- and I want to use it in ways that will help our people.”
“Miss Franklin said, “My daddy (Detroit’s Rev. C.L. Franklin) says I don’t know what I’m doing. Well, I respect him, of course, but I’m going to stick to my beliefs. Angela Davis must go free. I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people. I have the money; I got it from Black people- they’ve made me financially able to have it- and I want to use it in ways that will help our people.”
And she always did.
Love you forever, Queen. To live without you will be heartbreak for so many.