Tag Archives: Ma Rainey

Stringbeans May and the Birth of the Blues in Black Vaudeville

Posted on October 5, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Just before his neck was broken in Jacksonville, Butler “Stringbeans” May was the hottest Black entertainer in the country. He’d just turned 23. Critics called him “eccentric” and “smutty.” It was Stringbeans who made the Blues first rise in Black Vaudeville, but he never recorded and never copyrighted his hits. Details of his death remain a mystery.

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Tagged "Pray for the Lights to Go Out", A Bunch of Blues, Alan Lomax, Alf Kelly, Ashley Street Blues, Ballin' the Jack, Bijou Theater, Black Masonic Temple, Black Masonic Temple Jacksonville, Blind Blake, Broadway Rastus, Buddy Bradley, Butler "String Beans" May, Butler May, Charlie Johnson and His Paradise Band, Chicago Defender, Clara White Mission, Colored Airdome, Dave Seroff, David Sager, Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha White, Elgin Movements, Ellen Goodloe, Erwin Bosman, Florence McClain, Frank Montgomery, Genaro Urso, Globe Theater, Gus Haenschen, Hattie Akers, Hillman Pratt Funeral Home, Incorporated Prince Hall Affiliated, Indianapolis Freeman, Irvin Miller, J. Paul Wyer, Jean Stearns, Jelly Roll Morton, Jessie May Horn, Jim Crow, LaVilla, Leola Wilson, Lubin Company, Lynn Abbott, Ma Rainey, Marshall Stearns, New York Age, Perry Bradford, Rastus Among the Zulus, Robert Johnson, Salem Tutt Whitney, Strand Theater, Stringbeans May, Sweetie Matthews, Sylvester Russell, Tony Langston, W.C. Handy, Will Benbow, Will Benbow’s Chocolate Drops Company, Willis Laurence James, Zip Coon

The Clara White Mission Remains the Humanitarian Heart of Jax

Posted on February 26, 2017 | 1 comment

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If the goodness, kindness, and mercy enacted in a particular building, on a certain quadrant of earth, can accrue across the years, then the Clara White Mission should be a pilgrimage site and 613 Ashley Street in LaVilla is sacred ground.

At the turn of 1974, Eartha was the tiny, bird-like, Old-Testament-but-New-Testament saint at the center of town. She died in January. I was born in June. I so wish I could have met her.

When I saw Eartha White look out at me from the open doors of Roosevelt Watson III’s major artwork, I saw her as I’d never seen her but also as she’d visited me, angelically and ghostly, when I’d most needed to find her before.

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Tagged "Storehouse for the People", Adam English, anti-lynching, Ashley Street, Bethel Baptist, Bijou Theater, Black Bottom Dance, Bojangles, Charles H. Loeb, Clara White, Clara White Mission, Colored Airdome, Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha White, Father Henry Harrison, Frank Crowd, Franklin Baby Seals, Globe Theater, Guy Stockton, Hansontown, Henry John Klutho, Hollywood Music Store, In Search of Eartha White, Jacksonville Rounders Dance, jaxpsychogeo, Jim Crow, Ju'Coby Pittman, Lafayette White, LaVilla, Ma Rainey, Merry Hearts' Club, Michelle Calloway, Mollie Chapman, Nipsey Russell, Perversion magazine, Pittsburgh Courier, Richard McKissick, Roosevelt Watson III, Shawana Brooks, Squire English, Stockton family Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore