Welcome to IHS’s Great Pride Giveaway!
June is a special month for us at IHS Headquarters because it’s Pride season. Which means rainbows galore! That makes us truly happy because one of our missions in life is to spread rainbows and to show our pride every single day.
PRIDE PHOTO
TB and Miranda had a special photo shoot at Miranda’s parents’ house to snap many Pride photos like this one:
TB here. It’s a shame it’s not Halloween season because I would nail an old lady costume because of my back issue. This is how I walk/stand for half of the day still after five weeks of this pain. It’s kinda fitting I’m wearing my Winnie and Piglet shirt that reads, you’re braver than you believe. Also, I love that they’re holding hands. Without my friends, I would be in an even worse situation. Everyone, especially Miranda, is pitching in to help me get groceries, taking me to doctor appointments, laundry, and cooking me meals. While I’m suffering, I’m very aware of how lucky I am to have such an amazing support team.
GREAT PRIDE EBOOK GIVEAWAY
We asked authors to donate eBooks for a massive giveaway and wowzers, so many authors are taking part. Every day in June, there will be a new eBook giveaway. So not only will you see another pride photo, but you can enter to win loads of eBooks!
A few things about the giveaway. They’re open internationally. Authors will be responsible for delivering the eBooks. You WILL NOT be signed up to anyone’s newsletter when you enter.
Today’s giveaway has 58 books involved. One winner will be selected on June 26. That’s right. One lucky reader will get 58 books!
THE JUNE 22 WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED
We’re thrilled to announce the twenty-first Great Pride Giveaway winner has been sent an email. They won 60 eBooks featured on June 22, 2025.
The winner for June 23 will be selected tomorrow. There’s still time to enter by clicking here. Don’t wait. It closes later today.
QUEER TRIVIA
Before we get to all the wonderful books involved in today’s giveaway, we want to share some queer trivia. It’s the former historian and teacher that compels TB to pull together the daily trivia. So many amazing and brave people in history paved the way for the rest of us. The fight isn’t over, but while we keep showing up it’s important to remember those who came before us.
Here’s today’s trivia:
The 1900 census indicates that her family reported she was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. The 1910 census gives her age as 16 and lists a birth date of April 15, 1894, which appears on later documents and was celebrated as her birthday by the family.
She was the daughter of a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher. He died when she was too young to remember him. By the time she was nine, her mother and a brother had also died, and her older sister Viola took responsibility for caring for the remaining siblings. As a result, she was unable to receive an education. Her parents’ deaths and the family’s poverty contributed to what she later described as a “wretched childhood.” To help support the household, she and her brother Andrew busked on the streets of Chattanooga. She sang and danced while he played the guitar. They often performed on street corners for pennies.
In 1912, her older brother Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged an audition for his sister with the troupe managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher. She was hired as a dancer instead of a vocalist because the company already featured the popular singer Ma Rainey.
She later began performing in chorus lines, with the “81” Theatre in Atlanta becoming her home base. She also appeared in shows on the black-owned Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit and eventually became one of its major attractions.
By 1920, she had established a reputation in the South and along the East Coast. At the time, sales of over 100,000 copies of “Crazy Blues,” recorded for Okeh Records by the singer Mamie Smith, pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to Black people, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers.
She was signed to Columbia Records in 1923 by Frank Walker, a talent agent who had seen her perform years earlier. As her popularity grew, she became a headliner on the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit and eventually rose to become its top attraction during the 1920s. She maintained a demanding schedule, performing in theaters during the winter and in tent shows throughout the rest of the year. At the height of her success, she became the highest-paid Black entertainer of her time and traveled in her own 72-foot-long railroad car.
Columbia’s publicity team called her the “Queen of the Blues,” but the national press soon elevated her title to the “Empress of the Blues.” Her music emphasized themes of independence, fearlessness, and sexual freedom, sending a powerful message that working-class women could demand respect without changing who they were.
She often visited Buffet Flats after concerts with friends, including drag queens and gay men who saw the space as a refuge. Her friends recalled that many people paid high prices to attend the sex shows held there, and it has been reported that she engaged in sexual relationships with both men and women—including her longtime friend and lover Ruby Walker—both before and during her relationship with Jack Gee.
Her marriage to Gee was turbulent, marked by infidelity on both sides, including her many relationships with women. Although Gee was impressed by the money she earned during her career, he struggled to adapt to the world of show business and to her bisexuality.
In 1929, after discovering his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, she ended the relationship, though neither pursued a divorce.
On September 26, 1937, she was critically injured in a car accident on U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. She was taken to the G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital in Clarksdale, where her right arm was amputated. She died later that morning without regaining consciousness.
Her grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone was placed with funds provided by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who had done housework for her as a child.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of her time. She had a significant influence on other blues artists as well as on jazz vocalists.
Do you know her name? The answer can be found below all the books.
TODAY’S ENTRY FORM:
If you have trouble submitting your email, delete the autofill and type in your email.
NOW FOR ALL THE BOOKS IN THE GIVEAWAY
Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom for today’s trivia answer!
