The mother of the Blues. Went from showboats on the Mississippi to world fame. She appears on her own postage stamp.
Began as a blues and jazz singer and found fame on Broadway. She was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first to star in her own television show.
Known as ‘Lady Day’, she went from a childhood playing piano in brothels to national acclaim. Her unique vocal style became the template for jazz phrasing and improvisation.
An early voice for civil rights, she was persecuted by J. Edgar Hoover until the day she died.
Teenage protégée of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith stepped onto the national stage in the 1920’s. Known as the Empress of the Blues, famously tough, she once chased the KKK away from one of her own shows with a 2×4. Some 30 years after her death, Janis Joplin bought the tombstone for her unmarked grave.