James Brown made quite a splash toasting Nixon’s presidency with a performance of his civil rights anthem “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud.” The Godfather of Soul took the National Guard Armory stage alongside Tony Bennett and Connie Francis, while Nixon was nowhere to be seen. (The Secret Service had opted to hold Nixon in New York after a Brown concert held at the Armory three months prior had ended with smashed windows.)
No one in attendance seemed to particularly miss him, though. “Every time the little dynamo commanded, ‘Say It Loud,’ a little, black cheering section to the left of stage center in the $100 seats jumped to its feet to answer back, ‘I’m black and I’m proud,’” Jet magazine reported of Brown’s set. “Pretty soon, even a few whites in the overwhelmingly white audience found themselves caught up in the unique Brown brand of musical hysteria, and they, too, were saying they were black and they were proud.”
Ronald Reagan (1981): A very dubious start
You’d hardly remember that MTV launched the same year Reagan entered office, judging by the list of celebrities who turned up for his inauguration. Reagan began his presidency with the All-Star Inaugural Gala—produced by a newly Republican Frank Sinatra—with appearances by Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, and lots of other old white men I don’t feel like listing.
