Wattstax attracted 100,000 people – this 1972 concert was not just music.

On August 20, 1972, Stax Records brought their biggest stars to Los Angeles for a marathon concert. “Wattstax” is now celebrated with a new box set and a theatrical re-release of the 1973 documentary. But to understand the significance of this landmark event, we need to go back to August 1965.

Carla Thomas performed at the Stax Revue Show at the legendary 5/4 Ballroom in Watts, Los Angeles. After the show, she met teenage fan Jacqui Jacquette, who had recently won a local talent competition singing Thomas’ 1961 hit “Gee Whiz”. Jacket invited Thomas to dinner with her family, and they went sightseeing the next day, Thomas recalls. “We went to this little mall and there was a little office where the kids were taught passive resistance, similar to how free riders went through.”

As they were about to leave, Jacket explained why. “They kill young black guys,” she said. “They” were the police. A few days later, the arrest of 21-year-old Marquette Fry pushed society to the breaking point. Over the next six days, the uprisings killed dozens, injured thousands, and caused tens of millions of dollars in property damage. News coverage reflected a distorted image of the community, emphasizing the unrest rather than its causes.

On the first anniversary of the uprisings, Jacqui’s cousin Tommy Jacquette was among those who organized the Watts Summer Festival, an annual celebration of black heritage and culture to help rebuild the community and honor the dead. In the seventh year of the festival, Memphis-based Stax Records took the festival to the next level, according to music writer Rob Bowman.

Bowman explains that by 1972, the label had opened a spin-off office in Los Angeles tasked with promoting Stax’s existing lineup, identifying new talent, and strengthening its presence in the television and film industries. But Bowman says Stax co-owner Al Bell had big ambitions. “He also knew that his company was dealing with expressive black culture and that it must and did have a responsibility to the community.”


Al Bell, co-owner of Stax Records.

Courtesy of Stacks Records


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Courtesy of Stacks Records


Al Bell, co-owner of Stax Records.

Courtesy of Stacks Records

Together with Tommy Jackett and Stax West Coast director Forest Hamilton, Bell began working on organizing a large-scale benefit concert to close the 1972 Watts summer festival. Calling the venture Wattstax, the label booked the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles and hired dozens of its artists. The show was advertised on door hangers, billboards, and aircraft banners. Bell says he wanted the community to know that Wattstax is more than just entertainment. “It was a celebration of the African American experience and a testament to the transformative power of music,” he explains.

On August 20, 1972, more than 100,000 people came to the black gathering, second in numbers only to Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 march on Washington. Billed as “The Living Word: A Soulful Expression of the Black Experience,” Reverend Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Someone” litany set the tone for the day’s events.

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Kim Weston then performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, also known as “The Black Anthem”. This was followed by seven hours of gospel, R&B, funk and soul featuring artists such as the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas and Rufus Thomas, who invited the crowd to “stand up”.

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Bell says tickets costing just a dollar apiece meant everyone could experience the power of music to inspire, heal and unite people. “You see five- and six-year-olds. You see mothers, you see fathers. You see grandparents. It was like a family reunion,” Bell recalls. “I mean, it was like a church service; there were the same feelings and interactions.” Carla Thomas agrees: “I think the concert was a very spiritual moment because of the message of Watts’ recovery and the connection to the Watts community and the entire Los Angeles community and what was going on and how it affected the whole world.”

The concert raised over $70,000 to support various events including the Watts Summer Festival, the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. The best-of-live double album sold over half a million copies within weeks of its release. However, Bell says he wanted to take the Wattstax message further, including to white audiences.

“Many in this country, if they saw the two of us together, they would be afraid of us because of the way we were looked at, and the same attitude was embedded in our heads – you have to be careful because you are going to intimidate them or create problem,” explains Bell. “We wanted us to see ourselves and what we are to ourselves, and we wanted white America to see us for who we really are.” That’s why Bell filmed the concert for the documentary.


Poster for the film Wattstax.

LMPC/LMPC via Getty Images


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LMPC/LMPC via Getty Images


Poster for the film Wattstax.

LMPC/LMPC via Getty Images

Collaborating with producers David L. Wolper, Larry Shaw, and director Mel Stewart, Bell hired a predominantly black film crew when opportunities were limited in Hollywood. Instead of interviewing pundits, they returned to Watts and filmed “Emotions” singing in church, a young Richard Pryor making poignant comments about race relations, and people (including the notorious Ted Lange) in barbershops, on street corners and in public places. visitors talk about their daily lives and experiences. These vignettes, interspersed with concert footage, illustrated struggle, resilience, and joy.

Released in 1973, the Wattstax documentary was screened at Cannes and nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2020, it was inducted into the National Film Registry. While the fight for racial equality continues, Bell says, the hope for a better future that Wattstax envisioned half a century ago remains. “There was one spirit and attitude that prevailed. It was the spirit of love.”

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