(upbeat jazz music)
- [Narrator] Blind,
Black,
and often a musician.
The blind and Black musician is a longstanding
trope that even predates music legends
like Ray Charles.
♪ Tell me what I'd say ♪
- The first musician that becomes wildly popular
under the trend of being blind and Black
and being able to play an instrument
is a musician named Thomas Wiggins,
colloquially known as Blind Tom.
He was born into slavery in Georgia in 1849.
(upbeat blues music)
- [Narrator] How did slavery contribute
to the blind and Black trope?
And how do Black musicians challenge that narrative today?
- I, of course, don't wanna fall into the trope
of the blind musician because
the societal trope that was created is very one note.
- [Narrator] Let's get an historian's take on the origins
of the trope of the blind Black musician.
(static)
- Hi, my name is Danielle Bainbridge
and I'm a professor of theater performance studies
and African American studies
at Northwestern University.
(upbeat piano music)
Blind Tom was considered one of the earliest
Black celebrities.
He did national tours, he did large concerts.
Folks who were both disabled and enslaved
were actually put to work on stage
and oftentimes made you actually infinitely more valuable
than traditional laborers on plantations
because you could gain ticket sales, souvenir programs,
souvenir photos, appearances at rich houses,
and all of this created lots and lots of revenue
and income for the slave owners.
In fact, blind Tom's performances are nearly
$100,000 a year, which would be well over $1 million today.
It's unclear if blind Tom
actually got to keep any of his profits.
He was always under the custodianship
of various members of the Buffoon family
and also involved in numerous court cases
in order to determine who would gain ownership of him
and ultimately ownership of his earnings.
In the wake of blind Tom, in the early 20th century
we actually see a trend of African American musicians
who are blind, putting blind in front of their name
as a marketing ploy.
So we see these country blues or Delta blues artists
like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson,
the Blind Boys of Alabama
use that to promote their career
and ultimately to push their career forward.
- Recognizing that Black blind trope
and wanting to use it to your advantage by saying,
hey, we are a gospel singing group of blind folks,
come book us as this novelty act
so that you can pay your bills
so that you can make a name for yourself.
I can't hate on that.
(static)
My name is Lachi, she/her,
and I'm a Black woman with cornrows.
I'm a singer songwriter and disability inclusion advocate,
and I identify as blind.
There is also the possibility
of honestly wanting to celebrate
the fact that you're blind.
Wanting to say, I'm blind and do music.
And I want to be put on the same footing
as other people who do music in a different way.
- [Narrator] Knowing this history
about blind Black musicians,
how did Ray Charles turn that trope on its head?
- Ray Charles was actually incredibly unique
as a musician because he comes
in the wake of all of these musicians
who found success marketing themselves
as disabled and musicians.
And so he's living in this legacy
but he also is rejecting it at the same time.
He was actively aware of this trope of blues musicians
and other musicians who used the moniker blind blank.
And he decided that he wasn't going to become
Blind Ray Charles, but rather
that he wanted to be known squarely as Ray Charles.
- I think the keyword is singer.
I'm a singer.
I mean, I am not a jazz singer
or I am not a blues singer.
I am not a country Western singer, or-
I am a singer.
- It's interesting that Ray Charles decided against
playing the guitar at a very young age
because he didn't wanna fall into that blind musician
poor pitiful on the corner trope.
- The significance in Ray Charles
deciding not to use blindness as his stage name
is actually really about agency.
Agency becomes really important,
especially as we trace this trajectory
of disabled Black performers,
because we have to remember that under slavery
Black people were not just laborers.
They were capital themselves.
- I think there's an observational bias
that all blind folks have this whisper in them
of, you know an ability to just be a musician.
26% of Americans have some form of disability.
Honestly, disabled people are expert problem solvers, right?
When you wake up in the morning
and it's a huge puzzle to figure out
how to get from your bed to the bathroom every morning.
Well, you start to hone that muscle, right?
It's why a lot of us are so driven,
so determined and such visionaries,
honestly because we have to continue to traverse
a society that wasn't really built for us.
I couldn't 100% relate to Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles
because I'm a female,
and I don't aspire to gospel.
And so that, having to try to break free
of the Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles trope actually
is something that blind musicians have to deal with.
- [Narrator] So how are musicians
challenging those tropes today?
- There are so many contemporary blind artists
that I admire.
There's an amazing singer songwriter,
her name is Precious Perez.
She does Latin and pop music.
There is a great musician out in London
named Andre Lewis who plays every single instrument.
There is a young musician still coming up
named Devin Gutierrez based out of Texas.
He plays the piano and is a multi-instrumentalist.
There are a lot of organizations
that wanna make the world more inclusive.
There are people that wanna do it through policy.
There are people that wanna do it through technology.
What we wanna do is do it through culture.
I am the founder and president of RAMPD.org
recording artists and music professionals with disabilities.
- I hope for the future of music to be accessible.
Not just for folks with disability
but for folks across the entire spectrum.
We are everywhere and we need our stories told.
And so I believe that an accessible future in music
looks like us telling our stories.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching Historians Take.
Make sure to like, subscribe, and comment.
See you next time.