A Song of Freedom for Godfather of Soul? : Law: A South Carolina parole board will decide whether James Brown is eligible for a ‘provisional’ release after 26 months in prison. He could be freed this afternoon.

Soul singer James Brown today faces what might be the toughest audience of his life.

The self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business” is scheduled to appear this morning before a 7-member parole board at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C.

The board will decide whether Brown will be allowed to leave the prison system where he was sent 26 months ago to serve six-and-a-half years on traffic and aggravated assault charges.

While the 57-year-old singer does not technically qualify for parole until March 8, he has been eligible for a “provisional” parole release since last December and could be freed this afternoon.

In a phone interview Monday, Brown said he was optimistic about the hearing.

“I am a man with great hope,” said Brown, from Aiken-Barnwell Counties Community Action Commission, a minimum security facility in Aiken. “I was hopeful the first day I got into trouble. I was hopeful the first day I was born. I’m hopeful that I will live to be 90. You see, I’ve always been optimistic about James Brown and life in America. One thing about this country: she may not always act right on time, but she definitely comes back around.”

Ironically, the attorney who sent Brown to jail is now one of his supporters. Although Robert Harte doesn’t disagree with the original sentence, he said Tuesday that he has written a letter to the parole board urging Brown’s immediate release.

“I’m surprised that Mr. Brown is still in jail,” said Harte, who is now in private practice in Aiken, S.C. “Based on my nine years experience as Solicitor of the Second Judicial District, I thought he would have been eligible for parole a year ago.”

Reginald D. Simmons, Brown’s attorney, said he too was “shocked” that Brown has not been freed yet.

“Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped a Beverly Hills police officer in the face and all she got was community service,” Simmons said in a phone interview from Atlanta on Tuesday. “I’ve seen individuals leave the courtroom who received probation for committing worse crimes than James Brown.”

Brown’s imprisonment in 1988 followed a spree of violent episodes and erratic behavior--including assault and battery on a police officer in Georgia, where he was placed on probation. He was also arrested on charges of carrying a pistol and PCP possession, to which he pleaded no contest.

On Sept. 24, 1988, Brown, brandishing a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar in Augusta, setting into motion a high-speed car chase that spilled over into South Carolina. Police said Brown tried to run over two officers setting up a roadblock, so they shot out the front tires of his truck.

But Brown denied the allegations, insisting instead that he was in the process of surrendering to a black officer when a group of white policemen arrived on the scene and began breaking out the windows in his vehicle. Fearing for his life, Brown claims he fled as the white officers opened fire.

Officer Donald Danner, the black policeman who participated in Brown’s arrest, supported the singer’s version of the incident during the trial--leading to charges among some Brown supporters that the singer was victim of racism.

On the eve of his hearing, Brown touched delicately on the issue of racism.

“I think the record speaks clearly for itself,” Brown said. “We can all look in the mirror and tell what color we are. Remember, I’m the man who sang the song ‘I’m Black and I’m Proud.’ But I don’t need to resurrect 400 years of history to make a better tomorrow. I’m not worried about what happened yesterday. I’m looking forward to a long spiritual relationship with humanity in the future.”

Brown spent the first 15 months of his term at the State Park Correctional Institute in Columbia, S.C., before being placed in a work release program at the Aiken-Barnwell Counties Community Action Commission. For the past year, he has been working as a community trouble-shooter, counseling students to stay in school and off drugs and calling attention to the plight of the poor.

But under the terms of the release agreement, the entertainer is required to return each night after work to the Lower Savannah Work Center, a minimum security facility in the town of Aiken.

Brown’s request for a pardon was rejected in December, but he has since been issued a furlough every other weekend, allowing him to visit his wife at home in Augusta, Ga.

Francis X. Archibald, Director of Public Affairs for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, described Brown as “a model inmate.”

“He’s done exactly what’s been expected of him,” Archibald said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We wish him well at the parole hearing.”

If Brown is freed this afternoon, the singer will still be required to report weekly to a parole officer in Aiken County for the next four years. After serving out the remainder of his parole, the entertainer is also technically subject to an additional five years of probation.

Brown, often called the Godfather of Soul, said he is raring to get back to his music. The veteran recording artist--whose syncopated rhythms continue to define the pulse of rap, funk, rock and world music throughout the ‘90s--claims to have written a new batch of songs and is anxious to start performing again.

“I’m not going to tell you what’s missing in American music,” Brown said. “I never telegraph my moves.”

On March 16, a one-hour television special about Brown’s life titled “James Brown: the Man, the Music & the Message” is scheduled to air in Los Angeles at 12:30 a.m. on KABC. Produced by On the Potomac Productions, the program features rare performance footage and interviews with some of Soul Brother No. 1’s biggest fans, including Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, record producer-arranger Quincy Jones, singer Bobby Brown and rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy.

Also, assuming he is released, Brown is scheduled to join M. C. Hammer in headlining a large outdoor concert called the Liberty Festival at RFK Stadium in Washington on July 13.

“I want to use my music to raise the morale of the nation,” Brown said. “I think it’s time we bring the hope factor back. To get the message out so the kids coming up will have something to identify with.

“I want to give them faith in the future. To let them know they control their own destiny. I want to be a role model and help out. Let me put it to you like this: A man that doesn’t stand for something will go for anything.”