The Great Mississippi Flood | Media Storm | 4
American History Tellers
00:00
The Rise and Fall of Bessie Smith
As many as a thousand black people were drowned in this flood. She was an interesting figure in that she was also a crossover to white audiences. Unlike the newspaper coverage where Black reporters were reporting on conditions in the flood zone That never made their way into major white newspapers entertainers had the power to cross over the color line. Her song backwater blues is about a woman who Basically she wakes up and she can't get out of her door. It's a pretty simple song about losing one's home and the feelings that engenders um in one.
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