Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Act I

Reading Check

1. What is Sturdyvant’s attitude toward Ma Rainey?

2. What does Levee plan to sell to Sturdyvant?

3. What is the conflict between Levee and the others over “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”?

4. What does Levee say Toledo’s brogans say about him?

5. In what way is Toledo different from the other band members?

6. What does Levee believe about God?

7. With what religious figure does Levee identify?

8. When Levee says he would join up with Eliza Cotter if he could, what does Cutler accuse Levee of?

9. Who is late to the recording session?

10. What is Ma’s opinion of Levee’s version of “Black Bottom”?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Levee mean when he calls the band’s music “jug-band”?

2. What does Toledo mean when he says Slow Drag’s plea to Cutler for the reefer is “African”?

3. What does Toledo say is keeping the Black man from finding out who he is?

4. What does Toledo say is “the trouble with colored folks”?

5. According to Toledo, who needs to “solve the colored man’s problems”?

6. How does Irvin protect Ma from the police officer?

7. In what ways does the band’s talk about Ma differ from that of other women?

8. What is Toledo’s stew metaphor?

9. What happened to Levee’s parents?

10. As Act I ends, what is Slow Drag’s final wish?

Paired Resources

“Charles ‘Buddy’ Bolden” and “Joseph ‘King’ Oliver”

• The band members tell Levee that he is no Buddy Bolden or King Oliver.
• Consider the musical standard set by these musicians. How do they compare and contrast with Levee?

“Bessie Smith”

• The band warns Ma Rainey against singing Bessie’s song, yet Ma is unaffected.
• Think about the ways in which the female relationships in the play differ from the male relationships. How can these differences be summarized and evaluated?

Act II

Reading Check

1. Why does Sylvester struggle with his part in “Black Bottom”?

2. What does Ma request that further stalls the recording session?

3. What does Ma ask Cutler to do with Levee?

4. What is the relationship between Dussie Mae and Levee?

5. What is the relationship between Dussie Mae and Ma?

6. What happens during the first recording of “Black Bottom”?

7. What does Toledo say he’s never done twice?

8. Why does Toledo’s wife leave him?

9. Why do Cutler and Levee fight?

10. With what weapon does Levee threaten Cutler?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Ma have to say about Bessie Smith?

2. What is Ma’s perspective with regard to white people?

3. How does Ma describe the blues?

4. According to Toledo, why is Ma known as the Mother of the Blues?

5. Why do Toledo and Levee have a disagreement about satisfaction?

6. In what way does Toledo suggest that Black people sold their souls to the Devil?

7. What is the disparity that Cutler notes about Ma’s success?

8. How does Ma encourage Sturdyvant to pay Sylvester?

9. What does Sturdyvant offer Levee for his songs?

10. Why does Levee attack Toledo?

Paired Resources

“Denying Black Musicians Their Royalties Has a History Emerging Out of Slavery” by Olufunmilayo Arewa

• Ma’s small power over Irvin and Sturdyvant lasts until she signs the release. One band member tells Levee that he’s lucky to be employed as an entertainer. This article discusses the exploitation of Black musicians.
• Think about the real reasons behind Levee’s attack of Toledo. How did Sturdyvant influence Levee’s emotions and reaction?

“How Racism Pushed Tina Turner and Other Black Women Artists Out of America” by Christina Turner

• This article discusses the effects of “Jim Crow,” specifically on Black female singers like Ma Rainey.
• Although enslavement ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, consider the ways in which the idea of enslavement has been perpetuated in the music industry throughout history.

Recommended Next Reads 

Jitney (1979) by August Wilson

• The first of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle of 10 plays covering 20th-century Black history is set in 1977 and explores the lives of taxi drivers. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1982), set in 1927, is the second play in the cycle.
• Note, however, that the plays were not written chronologically. In chronological order, Jitney would be number eight and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom would be number three.

Fences (1984) by August Wilson

• The third play in the cycle, and set in 1957, Fences focuses on a bitter former athlete who works as a garbageman.
• In chronological order, Fences would be number six in Wilson’s cycle. In 2016, Denzel Washington directed and starred in a film version with Viola Davis.
• Fences on SuperSummary