Aretha Franklin's signature song and biggest hit, "Respect" burst from dance halls, car radios and porch windows amid a turbulent year marked by racial tensions and women lobbying for equal rights. Full Credit: Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Beyond the Rhetoric: Aretha Franklin – Perhaps the Greatest Singer Ever
The first time I learned that there was a singer by the name of Aretha Franklin it was uneventful. My high school sweetheart, Brenda, showed me the Columbia album cover with this 16-year-old girl they claimed to be “The Next Nancy Wilson”. Big deal! Did we really need another Nancy Wilson when the one we have was just beginning her long career?
How Aretha Franklin energized two social movements with one hit song
Nobody would call Aretha Franklin a central figure of the civil rights movement. And she was not an overt feminist.
