507 Ray Charles (1930-2004) “Hit the Road Jack” 1961

“Ray refused to play to a segregated house, so black promoter Sunbeam Mitchell took the risk, and for the first time ever in Memphis, whites and blacks in equal numbers sat peaceably together and the ‘For Colored Only’ signs came down over the rest rooms” (Michael Lydon, Ray Charles: Man and Music, 1998). 

Ray Charles “Hit the Road Jack”