Writer Karla Mendez looks at singer and activist Joyce Bryant, who, despite wowing audiences in the 1940s and 1950s with her striking image and extraordinary voice, left behind her successful entertainment career to embark on a journey to advocate for civil rights.
In 1946, while Bryant was visiting cousins in Los Angeles, they went to a club, and on a dare, she went up on stage and sang. Recalling the moment in an interview with Jet magazine in 1955, Bryant said that after a while, she realized she was the only one still singing. After mesmerizing the crowd, Bryant left the stage, but later, the owner approached her and offered her $25 to go back on stage, to which Bryant agreed as she needed money to get home.
The Genesis of An Alter-Ego
Bryant’s brief performance during this outing led to more performance opportunities during the 1940s. She was booked at La Martinique in New York City, an engagement that paid $400 a week, and a 118-show tour of the hotel circuit in the Cats𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Mountains. During this period, she also filled in for Pearl Bailey at Ciro’s Club in Hollywood. This would be her true start in the industry, after which she regularly began performing throughout the country, including venues like the Copacabana in New York and the Casino Royal in Washington, D.C., where she was one of the first Black singers to perform, in 1954.
Success Does Not Mean Protection
While a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, host Ed Sullivan insisted Bryant wear a bandana with her evening gown. In Sullivan demanding Bryant to wear a bandana, he was attempting to make her more “acceptable” to the audience. This raises the question of acceptance for who and why Bryant’s acceptability depended on the perpetuation of the Mammy stereotype. Can it be argued that by insisting Bryant pair her gown with a bandana, Sullivan was consciously or subconsciously stating that while she is a successful and popular star, she is still a Black woman and should stay in her subordinate place? Here, it seemed he was supporting the stereotypical notion that there is only a degree of accomplishments that Black people are “allowed” to achieve, but anything beyond that is unacceptable and threatens the racialized, gendered, and classed societal power dynamics.
Survival, Contempt, and Remorse
While the public worshiped Bryant and her talents, she herself carried a great deal of shame with her role in entertainment. In a 1977 interview with The New York Times, she spoke of the difficulty her family had with her wardrobe, which consisted of tight, low-cut gowns, and her performances, saying it was a sinful thing she was doing. Her upbringing in the church and steadfast loyalty to religion were in constant conflict with her career and the manner in which she was expected to present herself to the public. She was uncomfortable with how the industry 𝓈ℯ𝓍ualized her as a fourteen-year-old and the 𝓈ℯ𝓍ually suggestive performances she was forced to participate in. Bryant expressed that during her early years in the industry as an underage performer, she had to contend with remarks about her body, with men stating that she had an “ample body.” Throughout her career, she continued to fend off advances from men, including an incident in which a man physically assaulted her in her dressing room after she rejected him.
Bryant’s breaking point came in 1955 when she had a short residency scheduled at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Prior to that engagement, she had undergone a tonsillectomy and, in the process, had lost her voice. With her contract and payment in jeopardy, her manager demanded her doctor do whatever was needed to ensure she could sing, even agreeing, without her consent, to have her throat sprayed with cocaine, which acted as a local anesthetic. In the same 1977 Times interview, she stated that this act by her manager forced her to grasp an understanding of just what she meant to the entertainment world and those around her that depended on her for income. She realized that she was not valued as a human being but as a product, a commodity. She declined the treatment, and while she went on to perform in what she called a “fashion show” because of how little she sang, she quit the industry shortly after.
Acquaintance with the Civil Rights Movement
The Reintroduction of Joyce Bryant
While there is currently a documentary by Jim Byers entitled Joyce Bryant: The Lost Diva, when Bryant passed away, very little of her life was known. Work on the documentary began in 2011 in the hopes that more people would learn about and admire Bryant’s contribution to entertainment. Bryant’s story is an examination of the way Black entertainers, especially women entertainers, were treated, regardless of their success. It also is illustrative of the commitment Bryant had to the civil rights of Black people and to her faith. She attempted to bridge the church and the struggle for civil rights, arguing that as 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren of God, everyone deserves the right to safety, liberation, and equity. Although within her immediate congregation that perspective was not embraced, she paved the way for future alliances between institutions of worship and civil rights movements, just as she also paved the way for subsequent Black women entertainers such as Etta James and Aretha Franklin.
About the author:
Karla Mendez (she/her) is the Lead Columnist of Black Feminist Histories and Movement for Black Women Radicals blog, Voices in Movement. She is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida, pursuing a major in Interdisciplinary Studies and a double minor in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies. She holds a certificate in Feminism and Social Justice from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has just completed an internship with the United Nations Association. In addition to being a student, she is a freelance writer. Karla is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, she recognizes the importance of intersectionality in feminism, and as such, her research and writing focus on the intersection of race, gender, class, and politics.
With her writing and research, she wants to introduce people to historical figures who paved the way for change while bringing awareness to how discrimination and oppression can affect people differently. She will continue to explore her research as she begins graduate school next year to pursue a Master’s in Women’s Studies and American Studies. When she isn’t studying or reading for school, she enjoys reading for fun, watching old movies, and spending time with her family. You can follow her on Instagram.