When we think of rock n’ roll, we may not initially think of the pioneering Black women who blazed the first trails that established what we know of today as the iconic music of the 1950’s on through the 1970’s.
Yet, there is no question that such rock legends like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James and epic rock groups like The Shirelles and Labelle laid the bedrock for what is arguably the most American genre of music despite not profiting from the music industry like many of their white counterparts. NYU Professor Maureen Mahon joins Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal as they discuss her latest publication from Duke University Press, Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll.
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