Boston Maggie explains why Kevin White did a lot more to keep Boston from erupting in rioting after Martin Luther King's death than James Brown.

For one thing, there's the fact Brown only agreed to perform if the city came up with $60,000 to pay him:

... Yes, it was better for the City that a whole bunch of people stayed home and watched James Brown "do his thing". That would not have been possible without Mayor White coming up with the 60K and arranging for the local PBS channel to air it live and repeat it immediately afterwards.

Another footnote that makes the 60 grand easier to swallow. ... Kevin White didn't have that kind of money in the City coffers. So he went to the Vault, a group of business men who had formed to handle certain financial crises. Kevin didn't get $60,000 from them ... he got $100,000 and used the rest for things like starting up "Summerthing"!!!!

VH1 this weekend is airing a documentary on the 40th anniversary of James Brown's concert at the Garden the day after Martin Luther King's assassination - the one then Mayor Kevin White came to realize could not be canceled - and had to be aired live on local TV (only Channel 2 put it on):

... Even in this bleakest of moments, James knows his job is to go on-stage and give the people a reason not to riot. He puts on a mesmerizing show. James Brown kept the peace in one of America's most racially inflammatory cities. And he did that just by being James Brown -- setting the stage of the Boston Garden on fire. And the city itself didn't burn. ...

WGBH page on the concert - You can listen to the entire concert and watch WGBH's own documentary on that night, "The Politics of Soul."

Via Carmen Nobel.