Aretha Franklin
... young teen life. By the time she was 16 years old, Aretha had fallen for another man at the Arcadia Roller Rink. Aretha, as private as she is, has also kept this man’s name secret too. In this time, she was pregnant with her second child, Edward (“Aretha Franklin” Britannica). The man from the roller rink is the father of this baby. As they did with Clarence, Reverend Franklin and her family all supported Aretha to the fullest. Aretha knew that with two children and no high school education, she had to figure something out to be able to take care and provide for her family. Aretha and her father set out for stardom for the eighteen year old peformer. Rev. Franklin wanted her to sing pop music instead of gospel because he thought she would become more popular, however, the church community felt she was abandoning her gospel roots. Aretha’s music was brought to the attention of Berry Gordy whom wanted to sign her to his new label, Motown Records (Graham). The Franklin’s turned down the offer because they felt a larger, more experienced label was the way to go. Aretha and her father went to New York and rented an apartment. After moving in, Rev. Franklin and Aretha began to make demo tapes to send to the different record companies. Aretha’s tape got into the hands of John Hammond, a producer at Columbia Records. This record label was one of the largest national and international labels at that time. Hammond had discovered jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, one of Aretha’s idols. John Hammond described his reaction upon hearing Franklin’s music, “…she was the most dynamic jazz voice I’d encountered since Billie [Holiday] (McAvoy).” Aretha signed with John and Columbia Records. In 1960, she released her first record, Aretha. This album was not a financial success, unlike her later albums. Aretha did not make much off of it, she began to think that the music business was not for her. She went against herself and continued to keep her head up and keep trying. Just like she had little success with her album, her family also had desperation for a better life up north in Detroit. Another of Aretha’s large influences was Detroit. In Detroit, music reflected on optimism. Optimism is a tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation (Salzman). Many African Americans moved here in search of a new life. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated from the south to Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago searching for a better life for themselves and their families. Detroit had a bustling economy. African Americans hoped to find good jobs and a better living environment, rather than in the south. Many blacks relocated to the city in the hopes of creating a new future. The Vietnam War began, which started to take the attention off of music and onto the war. In the 1950s, Korea had become a war zone. Many Americans began to worry more about what was going on in Korea instead of in the United States. Aretha’s brother, Vaughn, had gone over to fight in the war. This scared the Franklin family. They worried they would never see him again, especially with him being an African American male. They now began to turn their attention from Aretha’s music and worried more about Vaughn and if he would ever come home (Slazman). After the war, Vaughn came home. The Franklin family was very relieved and happy to see him. Soldiers told Aretha that they found comfort in her music as they were in the trenches half way around the world. Aretha’s self-esteem flew high after hearing those kinds of comments. After hearing these remarks Aretha wanted to make her voice heard in a different way, through the Civil Rights Movement. In 1957, traveling through the south was dangerous and dehumanizing for blacks, no matter how respected they were in their communities (McAvoy). This is because whites dominated the south. They believed that they were both better and more powerful than the African Americans. When traveling through the south, it was sometimes easier and safer to meet up with other African Americans on the side of the road, because blacks could not walk into the same diners, or restaurants as white folks. They had to wait outside. People would just pull up on the side of the road to meet. This was tough on almost all African Americans at this time. African Americans began to stand up for equal rights, this later became known as the Civil Rights Movement. As the 1950s drew to a close, issues such as segregation began to draw protest from thousands of college-aged people testing their own values and independence. Many groups began to from, indicating a growing moral outrage among the younger aged people. In 1958, ten thousand black and white students marched in Washington, D.C. participating in a “Youth March for Integrated Schools.” The following year, twenty thousand students showed arrived. Demonstrations like this were not led by national organizations and if they were successful, they were only local victories. “Lunch counter sit-ins” ignited a young generation of blacks to become activists. They began calling this “the movement.” (Franklin) Word spread among African Americans through the church system. As the news got around, many African Americans began sitting-in diner only whites were aloud to be in. this movement helped blacks form a common bond. They were able to form this bond because they were a huge group of people around the southern United States that were standing up for both their own and every other African American’s rights as an American. Also, the movement gave blacks a new sense of pride. They finally bean to feel as if they were not any less than the whites. They felt that since they were humans, just as the white people, they should have the same rights as them. Finally, the movement encouraged most blacks to try harder to beat segregation. Most African Americans in the south were participating in protests, sit-ins, and marches for their freedom and equal rights (Harris). A close friend of Aretha’s father, Reverend Franklin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often led challenges to the existing social system. As the Civil Rights Movement became popular among African Americans, Martin Luther King, Jr. began to make his voice heard as well. Reverend Franklin introduced Martin Luther King, Jr. to many influential civic leaders in the Detroit area. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most significant African Americans in the late 1950s. King was a victim of racism just as many African Americans were at that time. As a child, he could not play with the kids on his street because he was “colored” and the other kids were white. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt that he could end the unfair treatment of African Americans (Harris). King encouraged his followers to fight, without being violent. Instead of using violence to challenge the way things were, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his supporters used boycotts and sit-ins to protest against the system. If they felt a law was unfair, they would break it to show that it needed to be changed. African Americans thought that if enough people did this, then it would show that the laws needed to be rewritten. Rosa Parks was only one of the thousands that followed the preaching of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a close friend of the Franklin family. He would often visit them both when he was on the road and at their home in Detroit. While visiting the family, he would share his thoughts with them. Aretha liked listening to him talk about how blacks would someday have the same rights as whites. As she would listen to him speak, she decided that she wanted to become a part of the movement (Harris). “After hearing about the Civil Rights Movement and seeing it on TV, I asked my father’s permission to participate (Franklin).” Aretha Franklin and her father would travel sometimes with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his different speeches. Aretha appeared with King on four different occasions. She also sang at money raising concerts (Franklin). Aretha sang the National Anthem to open the speeches. She would also speak out during the protests. She talked about the world and how she thought it should be. She felt that poor schooling kept the African Americans poor and ignorant. African Americans also lived in bad homes and did not have good jobs. Several states began to pass their own Civil Rights laws. African Americans were now able to use restrooms and eat at restaurants that were only for white people before. Some schools began to accept African Americans with the white students. The Civil Rights Movement encouraged the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Due to all of the protests the African Americans took part in, the government passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act prohibited discrimination for reason of color, race, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation. It also forbade discrimination in employment, also on the basis of sex. The next act that was passed was the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This act dealt with housing and real estate discrimination. (Civil Rights Movement). Aretha’s love life began to prosper when she meets the man she later marries. In 1961, Aretha was home visiting her family. Her sister, Erma introduced her to a man named Ted White. They began to date a little, then became serious. Aretha knew he was a “take charge kind of guy”, but she still had feelings for him. Although she knew that he would continue to date other women while still with Aretha, she still trusted him (McAvoy). Soon after, they were married in Ohio in 1961. Reverend Franklin did not approve of Ted’s controlling behavior. Aretha did not take that to heart and has a son, Ted White Jr. Ted later became Aretha’s manager. As African Americans strove to obtain freedom and opportunities throughout the country, they also cried out for more representation in popular culture. Aretha’s stardom began to rise as she played on the Ed Sullivan Show and at many music festivals throughout the nation (Moritz). In December of 1964, Aretha was devastated by the news her father had called to give her. Her mentor, Sam Cooke had been shot and killed. Sam had been a true personal friend and one of her first childhood crushes. After playing a show in Atlanta, Aretha made all of her crew stay later and she played some of Cooke’s songs on the piano for hours. Aretha’s career began to take off from here on. Word spread that Aretha’s contract was up for renewal soon and she was not interested in staying with Columbia Records. A well-known disk jockey in Philadelphia called Jerry Wexler, a producer for Atlantic Records, and reported the news. After that phone call, Wexler set out to sign Aretha. They offered her a $30,000 signing bonus. She was a little hesitant at first, but she signed with him (Franklin). With her first Atlantic album in the works, Wexler put her back on the piano, which she never did for Columbia Records. Her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, were her background singers. On January 24, 1967, she began recording for her album (Franklin). The title of her album was the name of the song she first recorded, “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You).” This single became Aretha’s first million-dollar selling record. It was number nine on the pop charts. Aretha finally had a real hit. Aretha’s next song she recorded was “Respect (McAvoy).” She recorded it on Valentine’s Day in 1967. Aretha’s recording of “Respect” took on another aspect of social significance as the country was dealing with equal rights for women. Aretha wrote this song because of events that were occurring in her life. Her husband was both physically and verbally abusive. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what is means to me,” is a lyric from the song (Aretha Franklin – Respect). This lyric is her personally asking her ex-husband to figure out what respect really is. Abuse is not respecting someone else. Abuse, simply, is showing a weakness not strength. Ted thought he was being strong and “manly” by being abusive but he was really just showing how weak of a person he really is (Franklin). The lyrics of this song are so strong and meaningful to Aretha. This song helped her cope with the abuse and the divorce from Ted White. “I ain’t gonna do you wrong, while your gone. Ain’t gonna do you wrong ‘cause I don’t wanna...