The Music Files-How the Godfather of Soul, A White Irish Politician and a PBS Station Saved Boston

The Boston Globe tonight is reporting that former Boston Mayor Kevin White has passed away. We don't normally talk politics or about anything that doesn't have anything to do with music or soccer here but bear with us the connection to one of those is coming.  Growing up in this city I've always had an admiration for the former Mayor after hearing stories from my father and his friends who worked for him and knew him well.  The one that has always stuck with me however is what happened the night after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.



With much of the country rioting and major cities burning there was a great fear over what would happen at a James Brown concert at Boston Garden just one day after.  Mayor white and Boston's first black City Council member Thomas Atkins decided that the show must go on.  It was arranged that the concert would be broadcast live on WGBH, Boston's PBS station, other Boston stations were afraid to broadcast.  Boston stayed quiet that night, which was surprising given the racial tensions that already existed in the city at that time...

View the entire concert...

The Godfather of Soul Saves Boston-American Public Media