An obituary of Maude Russell in The Independent:<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Maude Russell was a singer and dancer who performed in many African/American shows of the Harlem Renaissance. She once described herself as a "dancing fool" and her claim to fame was introducing the "Charleston" on Broadway in 1922. Off-stage, Russell was down-to-earth and often used colourful language.<P>Russell was born in Texas in 1897 to a black mother, Margaret Lee, and a white father, William McCann. However, inter-racial marriages were prohibited, and her parents never lived together. As a teenager Russell married the black vaudevillian Sam Russell: "He worked in blackface like all the comedians then. To be funny, you had to wear blackface."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=71077" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><BR>