Crucial Track for August 10, 2025

"Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud, Pt. 1" by James Brown

Listen on Apple Music

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Share a song that captures the feeling of being proud. - I'm going back to the James Brown well for the second time this week. To me, the song that immediately sprang to my mind was "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud," and one of my favorite movie scenes ever. It was in the movie Conrack about the year that author Pat Conroy spent teaching at an all black school on Yamacraw Island, South Carolina. In the movie, Conroy (played by Jon Voight before he went MAGA) leads his pupils in a run down the beach, all of them singing "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud,".