Some of America’s thorniest questions of race moved centre stage during the funeral of Aretha Franklin on Friday, when a fire-and-fury preacher held forth to declare that “black America had lost its soul” in a fiery eulogy that sparked anger and arguments on social media.

For more than 50 minutes, the Rev Jasper Williams Jnr, who also spoke at Franklin’s father’s funeral, described how black women were incapable of raising sons alone and why the Black Lives Matter movement could make little progress in the face of black-on-black violence.

He even used the term "abortion after birth" to describe the situation of children being raised without a father "provider" or mother "nurturer" as he railed against broken homes.

It turned an uplifting, musical commemoration for the Queen of Soul into an impromptu sounding board for some of the country’s most divisive social issues.

And it highlighted divisions among different generations about how to go about tackling racism in America.