Below, Aretha Franklin backstage at the Apollo in June 1971. Critics raved at her performance that night. An Apollo employee said no one ever at the Apollo got the applause Aretha got. And this from Times Black reporter Gerry Frazer:
“Inside, the thousands of black people who saw and heard Miss Franklin were more than an audience. They were part of a black interaction — they came not only to see and hear “Lady Soul,” “Soul Sister No. 1,” “The Queen of Soul” and all those other labels she bears, but also to participate with her in an exultation of their blackness.”


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