{"id":18954,"date":"2025-06-27T11:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T11:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/18954\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T11:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T11:43:13","slug":"ma-raineys-jacksonville-roots-as-an-openly-bisexual-music-pioneer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/18954\/","title":{"rendered":"Ma Rainey\u2019s Jacksonville roots as an openly bisexual music pioneer"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Blues legend Gertrude \u201cMa\u201d Rainey electrified Jacksonville\u2019s LaVilla district in the early 1900s, building her reputation as the \u201cMother of the Blues\u201d while breaking barriers as an openly bisexual performer.<\/p>\n

Ma Rainey began performing in talent shows and church minstrel shows as a teenager in Columbus, Georgia. When she met her first husband, they formed a group known as the \u201cAlabama Fun Makers Company,\u201d before joining Jacksonville native Patrick Chappelle\u2019s Rabbit\u2019s Foot Company in 1906, which was based in LaVilla.<\/p>\n

As a Rabbit\u2019s Foot performer, Ma Rainey gained popularity as one of the best singers in the region. She would often have three to four encores a night at the Globe Theater, which is now the Clara White Mission building on Ashley Street.<\/p>\n

UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 01: Photo of Ma RAINEY; Posed portrait of Ma Rainey and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels with Thomas A. Dorsey 3rd from Left (Photo by Gilles Petard\/Redferns) (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

In 1910, Frank Crowd opened the Globe Theatre, then Ma Rainey and her husband, Pa Rainey, joined Crowd\u2019s Globe Stock Company.<\/p>\n

The Jaxson<\/a> said that an observer stated that \u201cthe female member of the team caught the house from the go and kept them with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1923, Ma Rainey was found by Jay Mayo \u201cInk\u201d Williams, a producer with Paramount Records and signed a deal. She recorded nearly 10 tracks that same year and over 100 tracks in her first five years with the label, including some with big names like Louis Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Her songwriting was known<\/a> for its depiction of life from the perspective of a woman struggling with heartbreak, depression, and other maladies. <\/p>\n

Ma Rainey openly sang about her bisexuality. While it wasn\u2019t the focus of her music, there are at least three songs that reference it. The most popular example are the lyrics from \u201cProve It On Me Blues\u201d (1928).<\/p>\n

Billboard posted an article in 2017<\/a> about at five times she expressed her queerness in song. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere she went, I don\u2019t know, I mean to follow everywhere she goes; Folks say I\u2019m crooked. I didn\u2019t know where she took it, I want the whole world to know. <\/p>\n

I went out last night with a crowd of my friends, it must\u2019ve been women, \u2018cause I don\u2019t like no men. Wear my clothes just like a fan, talk to the gals just like any old man.”<\/p>\n

Robert Philipson directed the 2011 documentary, \u201cT\u2019Ain\u2019t Nobody\u2019s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s, told Collector\u2019s Weekly<\/a> that is important that she did this given the times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a handful out of hundreds and hundreds of blues songs that were recorded. The fact that there were recorded. The fact that there were any was remarkable, given the times. You certainly never saw it in any part of American culture,\u201d Philipson said.<\/p>\n

CIRCA 1925: “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey chats with an unidentified man circa 1925. (Photo by Donaldson Collection\/Getty Images) (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

In 1925, Ma Rainey was arrested in her home<\/a> in Harlem for having a lesbian sex party. Her protege, Bessie Smith, bailed her out of jail the next morning.<\/p>\n

PBS said Ma Rainey and Smith were part of an extensive circle of queer Black women in Harlem. While many were married to me, they had affairs with other women, and presented a lesbian life and sensibility to the outside world.<\/p>\n

In 1935, she returned to Georgia, where he operated three theatres until she died in 1939 from heart disease at 53 years old.<\/p>\n

She was inducted into the Blues Foundation\u2019s Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Netflix released Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom, based on August Wilson\u2019s play of the same name. <\/p>\n

Ma Rainey is referred to as \u201cMother of the Blues,\u201d the Songbird of the South,” the \u201cGold-Neck Woman of the Blues,\u201d and the \u201cParamount Wildcat.\u201d <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Blues legend Gertrude \u201cMa\u201d Rainey electrified Jacksonville\u2019s LaVilla district in the early 1900s, building her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,17919,3188,723,7310,17918,17917,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-18954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-clara-white-mission","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-lavilla","14":"tag-ma-rainey","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114755154995408731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}