The Original Trailblazers

As someone who considers myself a lifelong student of American history, I've been ashamed to admit, even to myself - and especially in the last year - that I've been largely ignorant of how whitewashed my education has been. A glaring example of the gaping holes in my education is the fact that I had never even heard of Juneteenth until last year. Why had I not taken it upon myself sooner to learn all I could about Black history, a very significant part of American history?

Also, as a music lover, I've had to ask myself why I've for so long remained largely unfamiliar with a very influential part of the music world. I have no excuse. From as far back as my pre-pubescent years, I've been a big fan of greats like Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige. Not only have I loved their music, but I've also been inspired by their self-confidence and self-respect, even when I didn't fully realize it. In later years, I've had a great appreciation for artists such as Beyonce and Alicia Keys.

But I haven't been as familiar as I could be with past greats on whose shoulders future successful Black women stood - Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, and Gloria Gaynor, to name a few. These women undoubtedly largely inspired and influenced their successors, just as their predecessors did for them.

Along this better-late-than-never path of discovery, I've found such incredible talents as the High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone, Minnie Riperton (How did I not know that Maya Rudolph's mother was a famous singer?), Abbey Lincoln, Mavis Staples, Sarah Vaughan

However, I didn't stop there. I went even further into music history, to the stories at or near the base of the reverse pyramid of Black female musical legends. Stories behind names that I'd rarely, if ever, heard before.

Mamie Smith

With no official record of her birth, Mamie Smith was estimated to have been born in Cincinnati in 1883. By 1920, Smith had become the first black artist to record a blues song, "Crazy Blues," which sold 75,000 copies and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994. Her biggest hit, "It's Right Here for You (If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine)," sold a million copies in under a year. Her success resulted in other Black female blues singers, such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, being sought after by record labels. Smith retired from singing in 1931, returning to acting in the 1939 in film Paradise in Harlem.

Smith appeared in a few more films, the last of which was 1943's Because I Love You. She reportedly fell ill the following year and spent her remaining two years in a Harlem hospital, passing away in 1946 at age 63.

Marian Anderson

Born in Philadelphia in 1897, Anderson became, in the opinion of many, the world's greatest contralto opera singer. In 1955, she gained the distinction of being the first black person to perform at New York City's Metropolitan Opera. Before she began to sing as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, the audience gave her a standing ovation. But she wasn't always so welcome in her home country.

Anderson's family and community noticed her talent at a very young age. Because her family could not afford formal training, she was tutored starting at the age of six in the choir of the Union Baptist Church, and the congregation raised funds for her to attend a music school for a year. After graduating from South Philadelphia High School, she applied to Philadelphia Music Academy but was rejected due to her color. In 1925, she competed against three hundred other people for the first prize of a recital at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Her performance in August of that year was met with much acclaim.

Many opportunities were closed to her due to her race, but Anderson appeared with the Philadelphia Symphony and toured African-American Southern college campuses. She also had highly successful European tours in the 1930s. Still not widely known in the U.S., she received scholarships to study abroad and sang for the monarchs of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England.

In Europe, she was welcome at the finest establishments, but in the U.S., she had to settle for third- or fourth-class accommodations. Things like taking a train and eating at a restaurant were often difficult. She ate meals in her room and traveled in drawing rooms on night trains. She said: “If I were inclined to be combative," she said, "I suppose I might insist on making an issue of these things. But that is not my nature, and I always bear in mind that my mission is to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.”

Anderson made her New York concert debut at Town Hall in December 1935 and subsequently toured South America before returning to Europe in 1938–39.

Beginning in 1936, Anderson performed an annual concert to benefit the Howard University School of Music in Washington, DC. These benefit concerts were so successful that larger and larger venues had to be found over the years.

Sixteen years before she broke barriers at the Met, however, after Howard University invited Anderson to sing in Washington, DC as part of its concert series and petitioned the Daughters of the American Revolution for use of its auditorium Constitution Hall, the largest in the capital with a capacity of four thousand seats, the DAR refused to permit use of their venue for a Black performer.

"They refused to allow her use of the hall," said biographer Allan Keiler, "because she was black and because there was a white-artist-only clause printed in every contract issued by the DAR."

Organizers of the concert hoped that the DAR would consider Anderson’s fame and reputation (she was the third-highest concert box-office draw in the U.S. that year), and make an exception to its restrictive policy. But even under pressure from the press, other great artists, politicians, and a new organization called the Marian Anderson Citizens Committee (MACC), the DAR continued to deny the request.

The incident received national attention and provoked public outrage. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a member of the DAR, strongly disapproved of the organization's decision and tried to lead by example by inviting Anderson for the second time to the White House to sing for the King and Queen of England during their visit later in the year. But as weeks went by and no other DAR members took any action, Roosevelt grew so frustrated that she submitted a letter of resignation and wrote about it in her weekly column My Day, published in newspapers across the country. "They have taken an action which has been widely criticized in the press," she wrote. "To remain as a member implies approval of that action, and therefore I am resigning."

“Very often, the people who could turn a tide don’t say very much at the right time,” Anderson told radio host George Shirley in 1974. “It is always, to me, a very unfortunate thing that incidents happen that could be avoided.”

Walter White, then executive secretary of the NAACP, had the idea for an outdoor concert. White and Roosevelt asked Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to arrange a free outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial to be held on Easter Sunday. On April 9, 1939, Ickes introduced Anderson prior to her performance before a diverse crowd - black and white, old and young, dignitaries and average citizens - of over 75,000 that stretched all the way from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. Millions more listened on their radios.

Anderson began with "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", to which she made one simple change: from "of thee I sing" to "of thee we sing." As she explained years later, "We cannot live alone. And the thing that made this moment possible for you and for me, has been brought about by many people whom we will never know." Her 25-minute set also included an aria from La favorite by Gaetano Donizetti, Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" and three spirituals: "Gospel Train," "Trampin'" and "My Soul is Anchored in the Lord." With tears in her eyes, Anderson closed with the encore, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen".

All of the controversy surrounding the event, as well as the event itself, brought national attention to racial barriers like no previous event had.

Eventually, in 1943, Anderson did sing at Constitution Hall. By that time, the DAR had apologized and changed its rules. Since early in her career, she had been insisting that Black audience members be seated in all parts of venues in segregated cities. As a result, many Black concertgoers sat in the orchestra section for the first time. By 1950, Anderson was refusing to sing at all in segregated venues.

In 1957, the same year that her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, was published, Anderson embarked on a twelve-nation tour through India and the Far East as a goodwill ambassador, sponsored by the Department of State, the American National Theatre and Academy, and Edward R. Murrow’s television series See It Now. She made twenty-four stops in twelve weeks. Afterward, President Eisenhower appointed her as a delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Committee. She sang at his inauguration, as well as President Kennedy’s in 1961. After touring Australia the previous year, she sang at the 1963 March on Washington. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President Johnson. On April 19, 1965, Easter Sunday, Anderson gave her final performance at Carnegie Hall, following a year-long farewell tour in the U.S. and around the globe.

At her peak, Anderson “was the Beyonce of her day,” says Leslie Ureña, curator of a Smithsonian exhibit dedicated to Anderson's life. Conductor Arturo Toscanini said a voice like Anderson's "comes around once in a hundred years," inspiring the title of Once in a Hundred Years: The Life and Legacy of Marian Anderson, a 2019 documentary by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Bill Nicoletti.

In 1977, she received a Congressional gold medal, and what was thought to be her 75th birthday was celebrated with a gala concert at Carnegie Hall. In 1980, the U.S. Treasury coined a half-ounce gold commemorative medal with her likeness. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan presented her with the National Medal of Arts. In addition to her numerous honorary degrees, her other recognitions included a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1991. In 2016, the U.S. Treasury announced that her historic 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial will appear on the back of the $5 bill starting sometime in the 2020s.

On April 8, 1993, Marian Anderson died of heart failure at the age of 96. In June, over two thousand admirers attended her memorial service at Carnegie Hall. She was remembered this year by Tom Hanks in a national broadcast on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the night of President Biden's inauguration.

Rose Marie McCoy

Before the popularity of singer-songwriters in the 1960s, most of the top songs were written by professionals working in New York City. One of the best of these lyricists was Rose Marie McCoy, the most brilliant songwriter people have never heard of - most people, at least.

Born in Arkansas, McCoy moved to the NYC at nineteen, with the intent of finding success as a singer. Her greater talent, however, was her songwriting prowess. In the late 1940s, Rose gave up her singing career and started writing for some of the music world's biggest stars. In 1954, her song “Tryin’ to Get to You,” made history when it was covered by Elvis Presley on his debut album that spent ten weeks at the top of the charts.

By 1961, McCoy was so successful that she got her own office in the legendary Brill Building, the hub of the music-writing world at the time. This achievement was made even more impressive by the fact that McCoy was an African-American woman in the early 1960s.

During her career, McCoy wrote for such famous singers as James Brown, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Mathis. Several big-time record companies wanted to sign her to a contract, but McCoy liked being her own boss. Sometimes, McCoy and her writing partner Charlie (the two of whom had previously worked out of a restaurant) wrote three new songs per day; one of them, “I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine,” received a Grammy nomination after it was performed by Ike and Tina Turner.

Later, McCoy wrote for artists like Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor and even composed advertising jingles that were sung by Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. McCoy wrote an astonishing total of approximately 850 songs. She continued songwriting until her death in 2015. McCoy was the only woman to make Songwriter Magazine's list of the nine greatest songwriters of all time.

Mahalia Jackson

Queen of Gospel Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans in 1911 and started singing in Mount Moriah Baptist Church when she was just four years old. Although she was raised in a devout Christian family, Jackson drew influences from secular blues singers like Bessie Smith and Mother of the Blues Ma Rainey.

After moving to Chicago at sixteen to study nursing, Jackson joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church and became a member of the Johnson Gospel Singers. In the 1930s, Jackson, along with gospel composer Thomas A. Dorsey, embarked on a cross-country gospel tour performing songs that included “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and “I Can Put My Trust in Jesus.” In 1934, her first recording, “God Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares,” was a success. All of her songs, such as “I Believe,” “Just over the Hill,” “When I Wake Up in Glory,” and “Just a Little While to Stay Here" were exclusively gospel and strongly influenced by the harmonies and rhythms of the blues.

Jackson's career really took off in 1947, when her song "Move On Up a Little Higher" sold millions of copies and became the highest-selling gospel single in history. This new widespread fame led to radio and television appearances and tours, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall on October 4, 1950 to a racially integrated audience. Thereafter, she performed to overflow audiences in annual concerts at Carnegie Hall. Jackson also had a successful 1952 European tour with particular popularity in France and Norway. She had her own gospel TV show on CBS in 1954 and crossed over into pop with her hit song "Rusty Old Halo." That same year, Jackson signed with Columbia Records and became the first black gospel singer on a major label, even later recording covers of popular secular songs, such as "Danny Boy," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Summertime," "Sunrise, Sunset," Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," and various Christmas carols.

In 1956, Jackson made her debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, and she performed with Duke Ellington and his band at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. Jackson also worked with Ellington on an album released that same year, Black, Brown and Beige, which included the song "Come Sunday" that Ellington wrote specifically for her. Jackson went on to record more albums with Columbia Records, including The Power and the Glory (1960), Silent Night: Songs for Christmas (1962) and Mahalia (1965). Eight of Jackson’s records sold more than a million copies each. Jackson made the appeal of gospel music explode; before she came along, a hit gospel record sold only about twenty thousand copies.

In 1959, Jackson appeared in the film Imitation of Life. By the end of the decade, she had gained international fame, with a list of achievements that included singing at President Kennedy’s inauguration. Throughout her career, Jackson captivated such figures as Pope John XXIII, Dr. King, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Empress of Japan, four U.S. presidents, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, as well as Ed Sullivan and other white TV hosts who clamored for Jackson to appear on their shows. None of her contemporaries and competitors like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Ward singers, Dorothy Love Coates, and Ernestine Washington could sustain the interest of mainstream white listeners like Jackson could.

A voice like hers comes along once in a millennium. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jackson was also active in the Civil Rights Movement, traveling with Dr. King throughout the South, singing powerful gospel hymns before many of his speeches, including, at his request, the spiritual “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned" before his "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

After King was assassinated in 1968, Jackson sang at his funeral and then largely withdrew from public political activism. Her final concert was in 1971 in Munich, Germany. She died of a heart attack on January 27, 1972. She was honored in both her birthplace of New Orleans and her adopted home of Chicago; tens of thousands silently streamed past her casket. It is estimated as many as six thousand attended her funeral service in Chicago, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. Aretha Franklin sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," one of Jackson's signature songs.

Her autobiography Movin’ On Up was published in 1966. She received three Grammy Awards in 1961, 1962, and 1976 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Her musical disciples, mentored as youngsters by Jackson, included Aretha Franklin, Della Reese, and Mavis Staples. Also, it's no coincidence that Whitney Houston's much-revered Super Bowl national-anthem performance has a Black gospel sound; her mother Cissy led a pop-gospel group that sang back up for headliners that included, among others, the great Mahalia Jackson.

These amazing women, and others, have inspired me to continue to not accept the world as it is, and to keep doing all I can to contribute to progress that has been hindered for far too long. To keep learning and growing, and to lead others to do the same. To take chances and push boundaries. To keep striving for happiness and purpose, despite life's difficulties and obstacles placed by those who elevate themselves by knocking others down. To tune out the haters' unsolicited opinions as nothing more than white noise.

If at first you don't succeed, then dust yourself off and try again. - Aaliyah (Gone far too soon.)

Common threads woven in all of these women's stories include the desire for fairness and equality, and also recognition and credit for their achievements. All were searching for their place in this world, following their hearts and seeking fulfillment of their dreams. All tried to be the best they could be, to overcome nearly insurmountable odds and obstacles thrown in their paths. All had to reconcile being celebrated and admired with being minimalized and marginalized.

There's so much more to unravel; but, alas, all good things must come to an end. I'm looking forward, though, to journeying even deeper down this glorious rabbit hole for the remainder of Black History Month, and the year. And the next year. And the next… There is much more knowledge and many more discoveries to be gained.

I hope you, dear reader, will join me.