Ma Rainey #1258

Caption from poster__       Ma Rainey's   Black Bottom     “ Went out last night with a crowd of my friends, They  must have been women, cause I don’t like no men. Wear my clothes just like a fan, talk to gals just like any old man ”Cause they say I do it, ain’t nobody  caught me, sure got to prove it on me.”   Gertrude Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (September, 1882 – December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known professional blues singers3 and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues. She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers. Born in Alabama, she moved with her family to Columbus, Georgia between 1892 and 1900. She apparently changed her birthday to make herself three and a half years younger. Biographies state her birth as April, 1886, in Columbus, Georgia (where she grew up). The 1900 census, a very relia