HOLLYWOOD - Thousands of fans paid their last respects to soul legend James Brown at the Apollo Theater in New York City yesterday, where he was lying in state.
The star, who died on Monday, was carried in a gold coffin through the streets of Harlem on a horse-drawn carriage while well-wishers danced and sang his hits in tribute to the singer.
Inside the auditorium, fans marched past his casket on the stage where he made his 1956 debut. Brown wore a blue suit, white gloves and silver shoes.
Brown's close friend Rev. Al Sharpton said, "This man stood for us, the common man.
"It was James Brown that with one song erased the word ‘negro’ from our vocabulary forever and made us say it and say it loud, that we were black and we were proud.
"We didn't line these streets because he had hits. Plenty of people had hits but none got them on their own terms.
"He never bent, buckled or bowed. He never diluted his music."
A private ceremony for family and friends will follow in Brown's Augusta, Georgia, hometown today before a public funeral service there on Saturday.
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