On this day in music history: October 5, 1968 - “Say It Loud, I’m Black And I’m Proud (Part 1)” by James Brown hits #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart for 5 weeks, also peaking at #10 on the Hot 100 on October 19th. Written by James Brown and Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, it is the seventh R&B chart topper for “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business”. Deeply affected by the loss of Dr. Martin Luther King, Brown is inspired to write the song as a rebuke against racial prejudice and as a positive message of self empowerment and upward mobility. It will become an anthem for the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in the US. Recorded at Vox Studios in Los Angeles, CA on August 7, 1968, Brown will invite a group of 30 young girls and boys from near by Watts and Compton into the studio to perform on the songs’ call and response chorus. The single is also the first to include new trombone player Fred Wesley who will become a key member of James Brown’s band for many years. “Say It Loud” will ironically also be Brown’s last US Top 10 pop single for nearly eighteen years until “Living In America” (#10 R&B, #4 Pop) in March of 1986.