Michael Eric Dyson honors Aretha Franklin and The D

DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit native Michael Eric Dyson's tribute to Aretha Franklin brought some of the loudest cheers of the day at her funeral Friday.

Dyson, the Georgetown professor, preacher, author and critic of race and culture had plenty to say, celebrating the Queen of Soul. 

"We are here for one voice, one reason, one woman," he said. "Who was a freakishly precocious woman, a bronze wunderkind of the gospel."

Dyson also spoke about race and Aretha’s role as an icon.

"Aretha Franklin never called herself a feminist but she had feminist sensibilities, the independent autonomous reach of black female identity was radiant in her rhetoric. she was black girl magic before there was black girl magic."

"She was black without apology or excuse and she was American without argument or exception."

Dyson also spoke about what makes his hometown of Detroit great including Faygo red pop and Vernor's.

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You might be proud to come from Chicago or Philadelphia, he said, but you don't have 'The D.'

Watch the entire speech above.