I love this. I love seeing footage I have never seen before. Thank you Blackguy69!
PS, that is Linda Tucker aka Lynda Laurence and Jim Gilstrap singing with Stevie. If this is from December 1971 ,there is no way Linda was in the Supremes in 1971 like she claimed.
This was for the John Sinclair Freedom Rally. In 1969, Sinclair was arrested for possessing marijuana after he gave two joints to two undercover cops. At the time, if you possessed marijuana, they would basically throw the book at you. John got TEN YEARS [[hence why the concert was nicknamed "Ten For Two").
Stevie was the only Motown artist, the only R&B artist, and, as far as I know, the only African American artist, to take part in this rally. Must be something about Stevie [[and Lennon since he organized the rally with Yoko Ono) because after that rally, the state of Michigan declared that Sinclair's conviction was unconstitutional and he was freed.
I don't know if he ever got pardoned for it but this was why Stevie was there.
I remember Aretha raising money to free Angela Davis. I remember Florence Ballard performing for a benefit for Joan Little. I remember Mary Wilson and Pedro Ferrer hosting Min. Louis Farrakhan at their home when he was still fairly unknown in order to meet members of "Black Hollywood".
Don't forget Marvin Gaye performing for PUSH [[I forgot what it was about but it had to do with what was going on in Chicago at the time; the "Save the Children" benefit) and his later performance for the Ghana literacy drive where he was feted by Shirley Temple Black at the United Nations in 1975 and I think he also performed at a benefit concert for Rubin Carter and shaved his head [[and then claimed he was gonna keep it shaved until he got released but he reneged on that claim. Guess Janis was like "no Marv grow it back" LOL).
I think Marvin also performed at some rally with the Black Panthers for their breakfast program [[though he always expressed disinterest in the Panthers' volatile confrontational tactics).
Last edited by midnightman; 07-10-2019 at 01:02 PM.
I'm wondering if Marvin Gaye performed a whole concert at PUSH Expo in 72?I'd like to see and hear it someday!
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