Editing Ma Rainey (section)

==Legacy and honors==
Ma Rainey created what is now known as "classic blues" while also portraying black life like never before.  As a musical innovator she built on the minstrelsy and vaudeville performative traditions with comedic timing and a hybrid of American blues traditions she encountered in her vast tours across the country. She helped to pioneer a genre that appealed to North and South, rural and urban audiences.<ref name="Time"/>

Her signature low and gravelly voice sung with Rainey's gusto and authoritative style inspired imitators from [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Janis Joplin]] and [[Bonnie Raitt]] among others.<ref name="Time"/>

In her lyrics, Rainey portrayed the black female experience like few others of the time reflecting a wide range of emotions and experiences. In her 1999 book ''Blues Legacies and Black Feminism'', [[Angela Davis]] wrote that Rainey's songs are full of women who "explicitly celebrate their right to conduct themselves as expansively and even as undesirably as men".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela|title=Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday|publisher=Penguin Random House|year=2011|isbn=978-0679450054}}</ref> In her songs, she and other black women sleep around for revenge, drink and party all night and generally live lives that "transgressed these ideas of white middle class female respectability".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mack|first=Kimberly|title=Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|year=2020|isbn=9781625345493}}</ref> The portrayals of black female sexuality, including those bucking heteronormative standards, fought ideas of what a woman should be and inspired [[Alice Walker]] in developing her characters for ''[[The Color Purple]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Freedman|first=Samuel G.|date=October 14, 1984|title=What Black Writers Owe to Music|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/14/theater/what-black-writers-owe-to-music.html|access-date=December 23, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Bragging about sexual escapades was popular in men's songs at the time but her use of these themes in her works established her as both fiercely independent and fearless and many have drawn connections between her use of these themes and their modern use in Hip-Hop.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=DaLyah|date=August 23, 2020|title="Let's Have A Sex Talk": The Eras of Sex Talk By Black Women In Hip-Hop|url=https://www.okayplayer.com/originals/sex-rap-songs-90s-female-rappers-cardi-b-wap.html|access-date=December 23, 2020|website=Okayplayer|language=en-US}}</ref>

Rainey was also a fashion icon who pioneered flashy, expensive costuming in her performances, wearing ostrich plumes, satin gowns, sequins, gold necklaces, diamond tiaras, and gold teeth.<ref name="Time"/>

Rainey was inducted into the [[Blues Hall of Fame|Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame]] in 1983 and the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] in 1990.<ref>[http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey Ma Rainey Induction Year: 1990]. Rockhall.com. Accessed February 26, 2014.</ref> In 1994, the [[List of people on stamps of the United States|U.S. Post Office]] issued a 29-cent commemorative postage stamp honoring her. In 2004, "[[See See Rider Blues]]" (performed in 1924) was inducted into the [[List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Q-Z|Grammy Hall of Fame]] and was added to the [[List of recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry|National Recording Registry]] by the [[National Recording Preservation Board]] of the [[Library of Congress]].<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-2004reg.html 2004 National Recording Registry Choices]. Loc.gov/rr. A ccessed February 26, 2014.</ref>

There was also a small museum opened in Columbus in 2007 to honor Ma Rainey's legacy. It is in the very house that she had built for her mother and later lived in from 1935 until her death in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ma Rainey {{!}} Biography, Songs, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ma-Rainey|access-date=March 4, 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>

The first annual Ma Rainey International Blues Festival was held in April 2016 in Columbus, Georgia, near the home that Rainey owned and lived in at the time of her death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://maraineyinternationalbluesfestival.com/|title=Ma Rainey International Blues Festival - Mad About Ma Blues Society|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://maraineyinternationalbluesfestival.com/index.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129145143/http://maraineyinternationalbluesfestival.com/index.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 29, 2016|title=Ma Rainey International Blues Festival|date=January 29, 2016|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> In 2017, the Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts opened in Columbus, Georgia, named in honor of Rainey and author [[Carson McCullers]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/education/article165821017.html|title=Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts opens as 2017-18 classes begin|website=Ledger-enquirer.com|access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref>

In 2023, she was awarded a posthumous [[Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award]].  The announcement noted her "deep voice and mesmerizing stage presence" and that she, "recorded almost 100 records, many of them national hits that are now part of the American musical canon".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Frazer |first=Nina |date=2023-01-05 |title=The Recording Academy Announces 2023 Special Merit Awards Honorees |url=https://www.grammy.com/news/2023-grammys-special-merit-awards-recipients-lifetime-achievement-technical-trustees-honorees |access-date=2023-02-06 |website=Grammy Awards}}</ref>