Browsing: Columbia Records

There was no shortage of controversy surrounding Bessie Smith’s interaction with her record label. Find the fascinating, hidden decades-long fight over the Empress of the Blues’ music, some of the most powerful in blues history.

From the early 1900s to the 1930s, certain speakeasies/brothels in African American urban communities were known as “buffet flats.” Discover the bawdy, wild hidden meanings behind this word!