This is a fascinating CNN story on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which made history as the first integrated, all-female teenage jazz band touring Europe and the United States -- including the Jim Crow south -- during the big band era: First integrated, female big band highlighted at Smithsonian.The band's membership included saxophonist Rosalind Cron, the only white girl in the band, and Willie Mae Wong, the daughter of a Chinese father and mixed-race mother, who was apparently recruited to enhance the "international" part of the band's image:
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm were founded at Piney Woods School in Mississippi in 1937, in part as a way for the students to help pay for their education.Pictures and mementos from the International Sweethearts of Rhythm are on display this month at the Smithsonian's American History museum for their 10th annual Jazz Appreciation Month celebration. Former members of the band, including Wong, were in Washington this week to reminisce.
They recruited members of different races to help with the "international" part of their image.
Willie Mae Wong had a Chinese father, a mixed-race mother, and no visible musical skills when she was recruited to the group as a 15-year-old. She was out on the street playing stickball when they picked her up.
"The director of the music was named White," Wong said. "They called me 'White's Rabbit' because he had to spend more time with me to teach me the beat."
The name "Rabbit" has stuck to this day.