Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was a singer, composer, and pianist from the United States. He is regarded as one of the most famous and influential singers in his tory and was often referred to as “The Genius” by his contemporaries. He favored the moniker “Brother Ray” among his friends and other artists. Charles was blinded as a child, possibly as a result of glaucoma.
Who is Ray Charles?
Ray Charles was born in Albany, Georgia on September 23, 1930. He was born in Greenville, Florida, to laborer Bailey Robinson and laundress Aretha (or Reatha) Robinson (née Williams).
Aretha’s mother died while she was a child. Her father was unable to keep her. Bailey, a coworker of her father’s, took her in. Aretha was informally adopted by the Robinson family—Bailey, his wife Mary Jane, and his mother, and acquired the surname Robinson. Aretha fell pregnant by Bailey a few years later. She departed Greenville late in the summer of 1930 to be with family in Albany during the impending scandal.
She and the infant Charles returned to Greenville after the birth of their kid, Ray Charles. Charles was raised by Aretha and Bailey’s wife, who had lost a son. The father aband oned the family, moved away from Greenville, and married another lady. Charles had a brother, George, by his first birthday.
Charles was strongly attached to his mother and subsequently remembers her resilience, self-sufficiency, and pride as guiding lights in his life, despite her bad health and difficulty.
Charles had an early interest in mechanical devices and would frequently see his neighbors working on their cars and agricultural machines. At the age of three, he was piqued by Wylie Pitman’s Red Wing Cafe, where Pitman performed boogie woogie on an antique upright piano; Pitman later taught Charles how to play the piano. Charles and his mother were always welcomed at the Red Wing Cafe, and they even lived there when they were in financial trouble. Pitman would also look after Ray’s younger brother George, relieving their mother of some of the stress. When George was four years old, he drowned by accident in his mother’s laundry tub.
How did Ray Charles Contribute to the Civil Rights Movement?
The Albany, Georgia-born musician was scheduled to perform at a dance at Bell Auditorium in Augusta on March 15, 1961, shortly after the release of the hit song “Georgia on My Mind” (1960), but canceled the show after learning from Paine College students that the larger auditorium dance floor would be restricted to whites, while blacks would be forced to sit in the Music Hall balcony. Charles left town soon after informing the public that he would not be performing, but the promoter went on to suit Charles for breach of contract, and Charles was fined $757 on June 14, 1962, in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta.
The following year, on October 23, 1963, Charles performed at a desegregated Bell Auditorium concert with his support singers, the Raelettes, as dramatized in the 2004 film Ray. Ray Charles Plaza, in Albany, Georgia, was inaugurated on December 7, 2007, with a revolving, lit bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano.
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
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Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
