and first lady in a period when you weren t supposed to call a black woman mrs is a very important racialized statement as well it s a statement of stature of prestige. of entitlement to dignity. but the first lady of jazz faced the same discrimination that all black jazz musicians suffered at the time in one nine hundred fifty five she and other band members were arrested on a trumped up charge after a concert and used in texas. but a year earlier on a stopover in honolulu on route to sydney australia she was forced off the plane to allow white passengers on board. fitzgerald had to wait three days for another connecting flight norman grant s subsequently sued pan am which lost and was forced to pay damages. the case made headlines just like another incident in one nine
really be able to pull this off and i couldn t do it because it was just not natural for me so i delayed that wind a bit i was like well that s a good idea. i m going to read you would need to go again and i have in the back of that that that that the facts. oh vote. in the second round for the one nine hundred forty s. she started working with norman grant s already you know legendary music manager and the founder of the concert series called jazz at the philharmonic. just so i need someone to speak for me and i ll do the signing and norm on the. management contract and fifty four. recording contract at the end of fifty five and started for records on my part of it is a had a vision terms of her tolerance work ethic the integrity of her work the
allow white passengers on board. fitzgerald had to wait three days for another connecting flight norman grant s subsequently sued pan am which lost and was forced to pay damages. the case made headlines just like another incident in one thousand nine hundred eighty five. marilyn monroe stepped in when her favorite nightclub the most combo in los angeles refused to let fitzgerald play due to the color back. row contacted the manager and promised she d sit in the front row for a week if he let fitzgerald perform. later ella fitzgerald said of monroe she was an unusual woman and ahead of her time she just didn t know it.