In the United States, Gbedemah is most widely known from an incident on 10 October 1957 when U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologized to him after he was refused service in a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Dover, Delaware.
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He was influential in getting an initially reluctant United States government to back the building of the Akosombo Dam.
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His campaign slogan "Say it loud, I am black and proud!" was taken from the popular James Brown tune.