he lowdown dirty blues was a far cry from upright, ambitious lifestyle promoted by the leadership class of African Americans that W.E.B. Du Bois referred to as “The Talented Tenth” in 1903, who were establishing black colleges and assimilating in the world of white Edwardians. As Philipson says,
The black bourgeoisie, the aspiring post-Victorian middle-class blacks, were very hostile to homosexuality. They were not the majority of the black community, but they were trying to set themselves up as the leaders. Post-Victorian morals were that you have no premarital sex, you get married, you raise a family, you stay together all of your life, you go to church, and you raise proper Christian children who take their place in society and reproduce.
Clearly, these lesbian-leaning blues singers were forging their own paths in a shifting cultural landscape. “No time to marry, no time to settle down,” Bessie Smith sang on 1926′s “Young Woman’s Blues.” “I’m a young woman, and I ain’t done runnin’ around.”
(For more information on Robert Philipson and his documentaries, visit the Shoga Films site. Recommended reading: Eric Garber’s paper, “A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem”; Queer Cultural Center’s article, “Gladys Bentley: The Bulldagger Who Sang the Blues”; Bitch magazine’s article, “Adventures in Feministory: Gladys Bentley”; Chris Albertson’s paper, “Lesbianism in the Life of Bessie Smith”; Stephen Bourne’s book, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather; Frank C. Taylor’s book, “Alberta Hunter: A Celebration in Blues; Bonnie Zimmerman’s encyclopedia, Lesbian Histories and Cultures.)
Images of Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Alberta Hunter record from Wikimedia Commons.
Crossposted from Collectors Weekly. See the full article here.