Two daughters of soul singer James Brown celebrated for his 1966 hit song “It’s a Man’s World,” have opened up about their shocking childhood and past between their father and mother. The two women recently revealed that they’ve grappled with reconciling their emotions regarding their father’s history of violently assaulting their mother.
Despite the pain Brown caused their family, they’ve managed to find a path toward forgiveness for the man responsible for their mother’s suffering.
Deanna Brown Thomas, 55, and Yamma Brown, 51, recalled what it was like seeing their father abuse their mother, Deidre Jenkins, following the premiere of his A&E four-part docuseries, “James Brown: Say It Loud,” which chronicles his life as a 7th-grade drop-out who was arrested and jailed at the age of 16 for breaking into a car to becoming a cultural force in the entertainment industry.
After his first marriage ended, Brown married his second wife in 1970 when they were young children, but his actions have impacted the lives of their daughters.
“When you see a family member being hurt, you’re not feeling the best about the person that’s hurting them,” Yamma said in an exclusive interview with People magazine.
“I was flat-out upset, mad with my dad at that moment,” she continued, adding, “I still go back to that place every now and then, not to belittle my dad, but flashing back over my own life and the domestic violence situation in my life, thinking how much of that shaped me.”
Deborah Riley Draper, the director of the docuseries, captured Yamma vividly recalling the last time she witnessed her father beat her mother, when Yamma was just 6 years old.
“I talk about it in the sense that it happened. It is an unfortunate time in anybody’s situation, anybody’s life. If they’ve ever had to go through domestic violence, they know what that’s like. And it shows that he was human because he was flawed, but it also is a time to show grace,” Yamma said. “That’s how I think about it, in order to move on from that space, you do have to talk about it, you do have to acknowledge that it happened.”
In her 2014 memoir, “Cold Sweat: My Father James Brown and Me,” she said she and her sister used to hide under her bed or in a closet when their father would start fighting their mother.
Yamma confessed in the book that she loved but also hated her father. She loved how he loved her and her sister and his little nickname for her “Yammacakes” but also was terrified by the rage that made her think he might, even as a kindergartener, kill his mother.
It is also a rage that would replay itself in her own life, as she married a man named Darren Lumar, who was just as abusive as her dad.
Brown, a Georgia native, was also raised in an abusive household. His father Joseph beat him and his mother Susie down when he was young. This was part of the story told in Draper’s work.
Still, even knowing their father’s background, the girls struggled with how they viewed their father, even though he did not hurt them.
“There was a time when I didn’t like my father. I didn’t like him because of this type of behavior,” Deanna told the outlet. I saw a lot growing up. I heard a lot growing up that could have damaged me for a lifetime.”
“He never had any type of rage towards us because we were his children,” the eldest sister shared. “That was a situation between a husband and a wife. There’s different type of love, different type of circumstances.”
The girls’ mother and Brown would split in 1979, with legal documents citing domestic violence as the cause for their separation. Their marriage officially ended in divorce in 1981.
According to Yamma, before he died in 2006 at the age of 73, he apologized to her mother.
“Not to say that that was something that just erased everything, but also knowing that he had compassion in his heart and my mom was receptive to that,” she said.
James Brown’s daughter Dr. Deanna Brown Thomas at the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame l. He was recognized for his work with King Records and starting careers for many artists. The Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame #jamesbrown #music #cincinnati #KingRecords pic.twitter.com/pWg1SYvgJv
— James Brown Family (@JamesBrownFF) July 24, 2023
Brown’s abusive behavior extended beyond his marriage to Jenkins. His first marriage was to Velma Warren in 1953, from whom he had his oldest son. Although they divorced in 1969, whether he abused Warren like his subsequent wives remains uncertain. He married Adrienne Lois Rodriguez in 1984, but she filed for divorce in 1988, citing alleged abuse. Despite remaining married until her death in 1996, Brown faced assault charges on at least four occasions between 1987 and 1995.
In America, 25 percent of women have experienced domestic violence. Within six months, 10-18 percent of those arrested for it are rearrested; within 28 months, it’s 15-30 percent, and within ten years, up to 60 percent. Most cases go unreported to law enforcement, suggesting these figures only reveal part of the issue, according to DomesticShelters.org.
This does not mean that men who have assaulted women cannot change.
“In order to change,” said Gretchen Shaw, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence associate director, “The abuser has to consciously choose to change and take responsibility for being abusive, permanently.”
Unfortunately, Brown notoriously was publicly unapologetic about being arrested for abuse. He had a total of nine children he recognized, though it’s speculated he had over a dozen.
