karnythia: sydneyflapper: nudiemuse: ersassmus: African American flappers and Jazz Age women HO

karnythia:

sydneyflapper:

nudiemuse:

ersassmus:

African American flappers and Jazz Age women

HOLY SHIT I HAVE NEVER SEEN BLACK FLAPPERS BEFORE!

There were many fabulous African American flappers. No wonder - it was African American musicians who put the Jazz in “The Jazz Age”! The Charleston dance iteself, which so epitomizes the era, made its debut in the all-Black musical “Runnin’ Wild”, and no one danced that flapper number better than Josephine Baker…save possibly for fellow Black artist Florence Mills, who claimed credit for inventing it (she said she debuted it in her “Plantation Revue” in the early 20s, developing it from a dance popular among slaves). The Charleston song was written by Black composer James P Johnson. Without women and girls like those above, the 1920s would never have roared.

I love the Jazz Age. And so much fiction erases us, but we were there leading the way.

Always at the center of everything that matters…