It is quite an understatement to say that Aretha Franklin was just a singer. With a career that spanned almost six decades, her musical legacy is positively unmatched. In 1987, she became the first woman ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was well-deserved. Over the course of her years in the music industry, Franklin was nominated for 44 Grammy awards and received 18, sold 75 million records worldwide, and until 2017, she remained the record holder for the most songs on the Billboard 100—a title she held for an incredible 40 years. Her death on Thursday, at age 76, marks an incredible loss to music fans around the world.
Yet, Franklin’s musical accomplishments were only part of the indelible mark she made on society. She was also a longtime civil rights supporter who was deeply involved with many notable activists and organizers in the fight for black equality—one of whom was her own father, C.L. Franklin. A Baptist minister who was a friend of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the elder Franklin organized the 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom. That event was notably the largest civil rights demonstration in American history until the famed March on Washington, led by King, took place later that same year.
Like a lot of black women who were active in the civil rights movement, Aretha Franklin’s contributions were often out of the public spotlight in comparison to their male colleagues. But that doesn’t make them any less revolutionary or significant. Though Franklin did not participate in direct action or civil disobedience herself, her expressive music certainly became part of the soundtrack for racial and social justice in the 1960s and 70s. As NBC News notes, Franklin sang at both the funeral of Martin Luther King and sang the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention in 1968—a year regarded by many as a turning point in American society because of all the violence, social unrest, and assassinations that occurred.
And, of course, no one can forget her song “Respect,” which came out in 1967. According to The Washington Post, that song became the anthem for both women’s rights and civil rights.
“There's no way to overstate what Aretha meant to the generation that came of age during the Civil Rights Movement,” Craig Werner, professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told NBC News.
In recent years, Franklin continued lending her soulful voice to noteworthy political and social events. In 2009, she sang My Country, ‘Tis of Thee at the inauguration of the country’s first black president, Barack Obama. But Franklin’s contributions to racial and social justice didn’t stop at her music. A little-known fact about her is that in 1970, she offered to cover the bond for former Black Panther Party member Angela Davis. Davis was arrested and jailed for 16 months on kidnapping and murder charges, which were later overturned. Vanity Fair describes how Franklin was very public about her intent to pay Davis’s bail, “whether it was $100,000 or $250,000.” About Davis, Franklin said:
“Angela Davis must go free. Black people must be free. . . . Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to set 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.”
While we remember the “Queen of Soul” and her incredible contributions to American music and culture, let’s also honor and appreciate the ways in which she stood unapologetically with black people and for black equality. She most certainly influenced the culture of the time, yet she also acknowledged that the time period also influenced her a great deal—encouraging her to be vocal about the need for respect and rights for all people. Of her experience, she once said, "I believe that the black revolution certainly forced me and the majority of black people to begin taking a second look at ourselves. It wasn't that we were all that ashamed of ourselves, we merely started appreciating our natural selves ... sort of, you know, falling in love with ourselves just as we are. We found that we had far more to be proud of."
Rest in power, Aretha. Thank you for your presence, voice, and love of your community. Your legacy will live on and continue to influence people of all colors for generations to come.