"I've never taken boxing promoter Don King too seriously as a self-proclaimed Republican."

But the new concert documentary Soul Power made J.R. Taylor of RightWingTrash change his mind:

There are still two fine political moments. One has King and fellow Republican James Brown discussing the importance of capitalism in liberating a minority—in this case, black men named Don King and James Brown. The longer scene starts with Ali saying hello to Stokely Carmichael, and admonishing him not to burn down anything in Zaire. (Carmichael’s wife, Miriam Makeba, performs in the concert.) Ali then gets going on a rant about how he’s never been a free man in white America.

A black gentleman sitting next to King disagrees. He declares that Muhammad Ali is a free man, Sammy Davis, Jr. is a free man, and then he declares himself to be a free man. King is nodding approvingly. Ali seems to concede the point. He jokes that he’s being contradicted by a dishwasher. Actually, I’m pretty sure Ali is being contradicted by his longtime aide Drew Bundini Brown. Say what you will about Ali, but he obviously didn’t surround himself with yes-men.

I never knew James Brown was a Republican, but I'm not surprised — he was pretty icy to Kevin White in The Night James Brown Saved Boston.

Speaking of which, The Night James Brown Saved Boston is available on Youtube in full. Keep in mind as you watch it that although James Brown's televised concert the night after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination did prevent violence from breaking out, he didn't actually save Boston from race riots. He just postponed them until the seventies, when they were really embarrassing.