Author, musician and James Brown aficionado James McBride talks with Big Think about the legal disputes regarding Brown’s estate and the Godfather of Soul’s relationship with the South.
In the video, McBride says Brown was a man of the South before he was a Black man. When the famous star died in 2006, Brown wanted to leave his estate and fortune to educate poor children — both Black and white — in South Carolina. According to McBride, the money has not reached any of those poor, underprivileged children. In fact, it has been tied up in 48 lawsuits. He says the lawyers dipped into his estate to pay each other.
“I don’t believe that would happen if his name was Elvis Presley or John Lennon,” McBride said.
