A New York Times article I read, today, motivated me to post this blog about Blues Women, the first civil rights workers.

Brent Staples wrote, Francis Harper “vexed white women reformers by accusing them “of being directly complicit in the oppression of blacks,” and by demanding that they rid themselves of racism.”

In my book, I discuss how “Black singers in the United States of America emerged from Spirituals and Blues to develop Jazz.  Their free-spirited songs delivered messages of liberation, signaling to Africans in America that they could be free.”

Besides being effective entertainers, “Blues women provided the primary means of healing of the human spirit with their musical dalliance that we can forever be delighted with and grateful for.  The paper concludes that Blues women Mamie Smith, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, and Miriam…