Linda Martell. Dona Mason. Rissi Palmer. Mickey Guyton. All Black women who are responsible for bringing diversity in country music into the limelight. And they aren't the only ones.
Black people have always been a part of country music—they just haven’t always been seen; their voices not always heard. A 2022 report by the Black Music Action Coalition writes: “The commercial country music industry has done an excellent job reinforcing the messaging and visual branding of its desired ‘truth’ over the last nearly 100 years, that for most of the history of the recording industry, the rest of America has accepted it as fact.” That “truth” being that the genre is by, and for, white people.
