Ruth Brown: “No woman has held as exalted a position in the entertainment industry as she does as founder and now president of Queen Booking Corp., one of America’s major talent booking agencies. Prior to Ruth Brown, the only black woman seen in the halls of such competitors as the William Morris Agency and Creative Management Associates [now known as Creative Artists Agency] dealt in mops and pails rather than careers and contracts.”
Ruth Brown represented acts such as Aretha Franklin and throughout her time on Earth, she was able to create a “multi-million dollar black empire.” It’s been 4o years since this article was published in Ebony, but how many African American women have been hired and/or promoted as music Agent at the major talent agencies in Hollywood in that same time span? If I were to make an educated guess, I would say the answer is less than three and none of them were employed in the 21st century. Is this America’s idea of “racial progress”? If the reason for this is NOT racial discrimination, then what explanation can be given to explain why this has happened? What’s the purpose of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, if entire industries, especially those with higher paying and higher status positions, continue to remain racially homogeneous in 2014?
Me Against Iniquity: Understanding the Complexities of Global White Supremacy (Racism) Through The Eyes of an Unapologetically BLACK Intellectual 