In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, launched the first Negro History Week to celebrate African American contributions that were “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” The celebration of Black history was timed to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
This year marks the centennial birthday of jazz legends, including John Coltrane, Ray Brown, Miles Davis, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Heath, Melba Liston and Randy Weston.
Blues legend Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was born on December 11, 1926 in Alabama. She was the first to record “Hound Dog” which was written for her.
Thornton wrote and recorded “Ball and Chain” in the 1960s.
Thornton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 in the “Musical Influence” category. She was inducted nearly 40 years after Elvis Presley and nearly 30 years after Janis Joplin.
As The Guardian reports, Thornton’s contributions have been overlooked and ignored:
Thornton should be ranked alongside the likes of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, but instead she is little more than a footnote in the histories of Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin as the original voice behind songs they would make famous. A new documentary, “Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me,” aims to right this wrong.
“Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me” will be screened at the Doc‘n Roll Film Festival New York City on May 3, 2026.
