Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz

The commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century created previously unimagined opportunities for black performers. However, every prospect was mitigated by systemic racism. The biggest hits of the ragtime era weren't Scott Joplin's stately piano rags. "Coon songs," with their ugly name, defined ragtime for the masses, and played a transitional role in the commercial ascendancy of blues and jazz.

In Ragged but Right, now in paperback, Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff …