Founded in 1937, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the nation's first integrated female big band. The band members were students, 14 years and older, who paid for their education by performing as a jazz band to help promote and sustain their financially struggling school, the Piney Woods School in Mississippi. The Sweethearts traveled nationwide in a customized tour bus built by the school, named Big Bertha, performing at churches, state fairs, dance and civic halls and later entertainment venues, such as the Apollo Theater. The band confronted dual biases of gender and race and excelled during a period in history when the majority of African Americans lived in the South under Jim Crow laws.
