WATTSTAX MUSIC FESTIVAL 72

WATTSTAX MUSIC FESTIVAL 72. Multi-colored poster picturing a photograph of Isaac Hayes and advertising Albert King, The Dramatics, Little Milton, Johnny Taylor, Frederick Knight, Eddie Floyd, Kim Weston, The Barkays, Rufus & Carla Thomas at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Idaville Indiana: Tribune Showprint Inc., 1972. The poster announces the date for the concert as July 4th, 1972 but the organizers realized the difficulties of holding it on America's 196th birthday so the concert got re-scheduled for August 20th, a date in close proximity to the anniversary of the Watts riots of 1965. These posters probably should have been destroyed but instead they were put in storage, and consequently those that survive are in virtually "brand new" condition.

WATTSTAX 72 has been labeled the 'black Woodstock', but there are many differences between that seminal hippie event and this 1972 concert. Woodstock was all about peace, love and music; held three years later, Wattstax had those elements as well but it was a more socio-politically charged event with emphasis on black pride and the opportunity for African Americans to unite and experience strength in numbers. Well-known performers of soul, R&B and gospel came together on the same stage and tickets were sold for $1 each so everyone could afford the show. An estimated 112,000 people attended with its music maintaining a theme of racial pride and interjecting speakers such as Jesse Jackson and Richard Pryor in between the numbers.