Happy Birthday: A Look Into The Legacy Of Ray Charles

UPDATED: 8:30 a.m. ET, Sept. 23

“I don’t think any of us really knows why we’re here. But I think we’re supposed to believe we’re here for a purpose.” — Ray Charles

Today, September 23, is the day of the incomparable Ray Charles’ (pictured) birth 91 years ago,  the above quote still resonates with me as powerfully as it did when I first heard it at the opening of The Ray Charles Memorial Library in 2010.

SEE ALSO: Hampton’s Mary Peake Led 1st Day Of School For Freedmen On This Day In 1861

I had always been a fan of Charles’ music. Who hasn’t felt the hair on the back of their neck stand up when the first strains of “Georgia  on my Mind” begin to play? Or the pain and passion that imbues his haunting rendition of  “America the Beautiful“? Listening to him sing the words, one understands that America can be ugly and racist — but that it is ours. Who doesn’t smile at the playful and sultry back and forth between he and Betty Carter on “Baby It’s Cold Outside“? The list goes on and on, but the heart of each song lies in the maestro himself, and that it is what I have grown to appreciate.

Want to Keep Up With NewsOne.com? LIKE Us On Facebook!

Completely blind by the age of 7, not long after he witnessed the drowning death of his younger brother, Charles would grow to be a pioneer in the genre of soul music. His risky, solely authentic blend of R&B and gospel shocked and titillated fans around the world and “Rolling Stone” ranked him as No. 10 on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” in 2004, the year of his death.

Though he would battle drug abuse in his lifetime, his legacy of music, resilience, philanthropy, humor, and wisdom serve as testaments to his strength and his unwavering belief that we’re “supposed to believe we’re here for a purpose.”

He found his purpose and the world is greater for it.

So today, we pay tribute to, in the words of the incomparable B.B. King, our “blind, Black, Beethoven.” No matter how long the list of “the great ones” become, the road will always lead back to you.

Ray Charles – What’d I Say Live (1963) pic.twitter.com/2HH6nlM9zN

— Kevin of @BrotherHQ (@FakeKevChestnut) September 23, 2021

 

Share your favorite Ray Charles’ song with us!

SEE ALSO:

Little Known Black History Fact: Sugar Ray Leonard

The Story Of Princeville: The First Black Town In America

Historic Moves: Lindsay Davis Becomes First Black Student To Earn Ph.D. In Chemistry At UTA

 

window.addEventListener(‘interaction’, function () {
setTimeout(function () {
var s = document.createElement(‘script’), el = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[ 0 ];
s.async = true;
s.src = ‘https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;
el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);
}, 1000)
});