Story by: Gail Nobles
Photo: Wikipedia Public Domain

Welcome to Entertainment History and News. I'm Gail Nobles. Today's topic: Why the FBI monitored Aretha Franklin. The FBI monitored Aretha Franklin but why? There are some things we don't know about some of our favorite stars according to USA today. The FBI closely monitored Aretha Franklin during the Civil Rights Movement. The FBI tracked her concert appearances and her record label affiliations. It is said from another source that Aretha was about getting Angela Davis out of jail and working with Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Others thought she was being unfairly targeted.

 Aretha was a songwriter and pianist. I never knew that she was involved in anything else but her music career. When she was alive, I learned about her from Motown, and I knew she was singing in church.

 The civil rights movement was before my time,and Aretha was singing before my time. I never knew that she was involved in the civil rights movement through her music and personal connections. In 1970 she offered to pay the bill of Angela Davis, a notable activist who had been arrested for kidnapping, conspiracy, and murder, and was later aquitted. All these things happen before I was born.

 Aretha Franklin stood up for the civil rights in the 1960s and 70s, and I can understand why. Aretha's music wasn't just music alone, and now I understand why her music was filled with messages. Messages of hope. The FBI monitored Aretha’s role in the civil rights movement for years. I believe they felt that she could be a very powerful leader, but that's just my opinion.