8. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey Home
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's (1886-1939) home is a two-story wooden frame house with upper and lower porches in 1920. Black middle class neighborhood close to the black commerce district. This is the only known house that is still standing to have been bought and occupied by “Ma” Rainey. “Ma” Rainey bought this house for her mother, Ella Pridgett, and financed its expansion so that her mother could have family come over and visit. Her house serves as a testimony to not only Ma Rainey but to everything she valued in life: community, family, and music. Known as the “Mother of Blues,” She was known for her remarkable vocal performances. From a family of singers Rainey began touring in vaudeville and minstrel shows. Rainey performed in numerous venues all across the East, South and Midwest. She played a crucial role in connecting the less polished, male-dominated country blues and the female-centered urban blues popular in the 1920s.She joined paramount in 1923 and began recording her own records. A few of her early discs such as Bo-weavil Blues (1923) and Moonshine Blues (1923) soon expanded her reputation beyond the South. Her songs and vocal style reveal a deep connection to many of the problems endured by African Americans such as the pain of jealousy, poverty, sexual abuse, and loneliness of sharecroppers and southern blacks. These were topics that many people did not openly talk about at the time. She retired from her singing career in 1935 due to a change in musical tastes and the Great Depression. Rainey became more active in the Columbus community after her retirement and joined the Friendship Baptist Church.
Submission composed by Devonte Hall on April 18th 2017
Address: 805 5th Avenue
References and Further Reading
Angela Y. Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (New York: Pantheon, 1998).
Daphne D. Harrison, Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988).
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/50651250-c13e-4281-900d-5fd6d2ffc609