Brown uses a call-and-response format here that's rooted in black spiritual and evangelical tradition, something familiar to him from growing up in Jim's 1930s. Crow South.
Brown starts the call with "Say it loudly", and a large children's choir responds with "I am black and I am proud". Curiously, however, the children who respond to him in real life by shouting « I’m black and i'm proud » - "I am black and I am proud" on the trail were, white and Asian children.
By, James Brown