Early in 1967 when she was already a music industry veteran but had only a few minor hits to show for it, Aretha Franklin recorded "Respect" and sent herself into superstardom. The song was released as a single and was the lead track on her breakthrough album, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You," her debut for Atlantic Records. Producer Jerry Wexler encouraged her to embrace her soul-and-gospel roots and together they found the sound that birthed "Respect." The song had been a moderate hit for Otis Redding, who wrote and first recorded it. Franklin flipped the gender, spelled out R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the lyrics, and added the repeated "sock it to me" line from the backup singers. The result was a career-defining hit that won Franklin two Grammys, became an anthem for women and quickly entered the pantheon of American song.
Franklin's flagging career got an unlikely boost from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd when she appeared and sang her classic "Think" in the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers." Franklin plays a fed-up waitress who sings the song as a warning to her short-order cook boyfriend, who wants to rejoin the Blues Brothers band and go back on the road. Waitresses, customers and Belushi and Aykroyd served as her backup singers and dancers. The scene introduced Franklin to a new generation, and signaled that she'd have a career revival in the '80s.
Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, joining a boys' club of two dozen men. Her class included Marvin Gaye, Bo Diddley, B.B. King and Franklin's essential producer, Wexler. The ceremony was all-male anyway, with Franklin a no-show and Keith Richards delivering her induction speech. Franklin's brother Cecil, a minister, accepted on her behalf and did an impromptu victory dance with Richards.
FILE - In this March 3, 1975 file photo, singer Aretha Franklin poses with her Grammy Award for for best female R&B vocal performance for "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" at the 17th Annual Grammy Award presentation in New York. A person close to Franklin said on Monday that the 76-year-old singer is ill. Franklin canceled planned concerts earlier this year after she was ordered by her doctor to stay off the road and rest up. (AP Photo, File)
George W. Bush gave Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony in 2005. The highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States, the Medal of Freedom honors those who have made especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Bush said in his citation for Franklin that she "revolutionized American music" and "has captivated listeners ever since she toured with her father's gospel revue in the 1950s. She is among our nation's greatest musical artists and has captured the hearts of millions of Americans."
Franklin sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama. The celebration of the election of the nation's first black president was perhaps the pinnacle of Franklin's long tradition of singing at America's big ceremonial moments. She sang at the inauguration of Jimmy Carter, at the official festivities surrounding the inauguration of Bill Clinton, and at memorials for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. At Obama's inauguration, Franklin appeared on the cold January day in a winter coat and a hat with a huge gray bow on top that brought a stream of jokes and comments on the fledging Facebook and Twitter. She gave the usually stodgy "My Country 'Tis of Thee" a soul-and-pop feel in her performance, endlessly stretching out and vamping on the final line, "let freedom ring."
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 1994 file photo, President Bill Clinton, from right, and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton applaud the 1994 Kennedy Center Honors award recipients, from left, songwriter Pete Seeger, director Harold Prince, composer Morton Gould, singer Aretha Franklin and actor Kirk Douglas during a reception in the East Room of the White House. A person close to Franklin said on Monday that the 76-year-old singer is ill. Franklin canceled planned concerts earlier this year after she was ordered by her doctor to stay off the road and rest up. (AP PhotoDoug Mills, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2009 file photo, Aretha Franklin performs at the inauguration for President Barack Obama at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. A person close to Franklin said on Monday that the 76-year-old singer is ill. Franklin canceled planned concerts earlier this year after she was ordered by her doctor to stay off the road and rest up. (AP PhotoRon Edmonds, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2011 file photo, Aretha Franklin sings as President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama look on during the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. A person close to Franklin said on Monday that the 76-year-old singer is ill. Franklin canceled planned concerts earlier this year after she was ordered by her doctor to stay off the road and rest up. (AP PhotoCharles Dharapak, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S.-built pier is in place to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, but no one will know if the new route will work until a steady stream of deliveries Begins reaching starving Palestinians.
The trucks that will roll off the pier project installed Thursday will face intensified fighting, Hamas threats to target any foreign forces who “occupy” the Gaza Strip and uncertainty about whether the Israeli military will ensure that aid convoys have access and safety from attack by Israeli forces.
Even if the sea route performs as hoped, U.S, U.N. and aid officials caution, it will bring in a fraction of the aid that's needed to the embattled enclave.
Here's a look at what's ahead for aid arriving by sea:
No, not even if everything with the sea route works perfectly, American and international officials say.
U.S. military officials hope to start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, growing quickly to about 150 trucks a day.
Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other aid officials have consistently said Gaza needs deliveries of more than 500 truckloads a day — the prewar average — to help a population struggling without adequate food or clean water during seven months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has restricted land crossings used to bring in food, fuel and other supplies since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel launched the conflict in October, creating a growing humanitarian catastrophe for civilians.
International experts say all 2.3 million of Gaza's people are experiencing acute levels of food insecurity, 1.1 million of them at “catastrophic” levels. Power and U.N. World Food Program Director Cindy McCain say north Gaza is in famine.
At that stage, saving the lives of children and others most affected requires steady treatment in clinical settings, making a cease-fire critical, USAID officials say.
At full operation, international officials have said, aid from the sea route is expected to reach a half-million people. That's just over one-fifth of the population.
The U.S. plan is for the U.N. to take charge of the aid once it's brought in. Then U.N. World Food Program will then turn it over to aid groups for delivery.
U.N. officials have expressed concern about preserving their neutrality in an operation with the Israeli military — one of the combatants in the conflict — and say they are negotiating that.
There are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food to those who need it most, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator for USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.
U.S. and international organizations including the U.S. government's USAID and the Oxfam, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee nonprofits say Israeli officials haven't meaningfully improved protections of aid workers since the military's April 1 attack that killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization.
Talks with the Israeli military “need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don’t think we’re there yet," Korde told reporters Thursday.
Meanwhile, fighting is surging in Gaza. It isn’t threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, Pentagon officials say, but they have made it clear that security conditions could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily.
The U.S. and Israel have developed a security plan for humanitarian groups coming to a “marshaling yard” next to the pier to pick up the aid, said U.S. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command. USAID Response Director Dan Dieckhaus said aid groups would follow their own security procedures in distributing the supplies.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have moved into the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah as part of their offensive, preventing aid from moving through, including fuel.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that without fuel, delivery of all aid in Gaza can't happen.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, the U.N. and aid groups have pressed Israel to allow more aid through land crossings, saying that's the only way to ease the suffering of Gaza's civilians. They've also urged Israel's military to actively coordinate with aid groups to prevent attacks on their workers.
“Getting aid to people in need into and across Gaza cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Thursday.
“To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza — and for that, we need access by land now,” Haq said.
U.S. officials agree that the pier is only a partial solution at best, and say they are pressing Israel for more.
Israel says it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says ongoing fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery.
Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza. It said a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods.
Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Tara Copp in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.
A ship is seen off the coast of Gaza near a U.S.-built floating pier that will be used to facilitate aid deliveries, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The image provided by U.S, Central Command, shows U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on Thursday, May 16, 2024. The temporary pier is part of the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore capability. The U.S. military finished installing the floating pier on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. (U.S. Central Command via AP)
