January 25, 1896 - November 1, 1927

• Florence Mills (born Florence Winfrey) was one of the greatest entertainers and singing, dancing jazz performers the world has ever seen.

• She was one of the all-time greatest stars of the black theatre, the first black international female superstar of the Twentieth century and a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance

• Florence Mills was steeped in the traditions of  African-based black music and black dance that gave the world the Spirituals ('sorrow songs'), the Blues, Ragtime, Jazz and the basis of much of today's popular culture

• She was also a truly lovable, charitable, socially and intellectually aware woman, who spoke out for the rights of her fellow African Americans.

• Florence Mills is largely forgotten and neglected today, mainly because the primitive recording techniques of the early twentieth century couldn't capture her remarkable voice, and she was never filmed, so no record of her performance remains.

• The purpose of this site is to help reclaim for her the status and respect her remarkable talents and heroic personality warrant, in the eyes of the world and of her fellow African-Americans, to whom she was so important in the 1920s.

•  Check the links below to learn about Florence's true greatness, or  read The Book !

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TTT

1 November 2025 is the 98th anniversary of Florence Millls' death at the early age of 31.
I have already nominated her as a candidate for a 100th anniversary stamp.
There may be still time for members of the US public to add their support via:
https://about.usps.com/publications/pub226/welcome.htm

On a less sombre note, one of Florence's closest friends was classical composer William Grant Still
He wrote the Levee Land Suite for her to perform at Aeolian Hall in 1926 to public acclaim.
He followed this in 1927 with his "Log Cabin Ballads" an orchestral suite.
This was inspired by the dalect poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar .Still said:
"Florence Mills was particularly fond of Miss Malindy,  and wanted me to have lyrics set to the tune so she could sing it"
Florence couldn't sing it to Dunbar's lyrics because it was not a setting of the Dunbar lyric but a separate composition "inspired" by it.
Many years later another great African American singer, Abbey Lincoln, solved the problem.
With the magic of jazz improvisation and the help of jazz legends like Coleman Hawkins we have:
When Malindy Sings
(credits: Paul Laurence Dunbar and Oscar Brown Jr).
from the album "Straight Ahead" (Candid Records), considered one of Lincoln's greatest.

 

 

 

 

TTT
To see what was happening in Florence's world in a particular month of the year click on that month's box below
 and then click "Home" in that month to return

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

This site is © copyright property of  Bill Egan. Content created by me can be used subject to appropriate acknowledgement including URL of this site. To contact me or make suggestions (hopefully polite) e-mail me at: (replacing  [AT] with @  )
Bill [AT] FlorenceMills.com
For information on Florence Mills: INFO [AT] FlorenceMills.com
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