Andrea Williams

ON-dree-uh
Author / Columnist @Tennessean
Words in: Vulture/NYMag, NYTimes, Sports Illustrated, etc.
INSIDE THE PARK out NOW! 👇🏽

[Andrea Williams @AndreaWillWrite]

College sports “purists” hate the transfer portal. It may just save the @LadyVol_Hoops program.

My latest, for @Tennessean:

https://t.co/CadUyRlrpe

[#BMH365 🎶🎤 @BlackMusicHstry]

Born This Week, Linda Martell
(Wednesday, June 4, 1941)

Lineage, Origins, and Formation: A Foundational Black American country and R&B pioneer, church-formed vocalist, Southern Black music tradition bearer, and one of the most important women in the documented history of Black American Country music.

Born Thelma Bynem on June 4, 1941, in Leesville, Linda Martell was raised in a Southern Black family shaped by church, labor, radio, and song. Her father, Clarence Bynem, was a Baptist preacher and sharecropper, and her mother, Willie Mae Bynem, worked in poultry plants. Before the country industry knew what to do with her, Martell was already absorbing the music around her: Gospel in church, country music through her father’s listening habits, and R&B through the performance culture that surrounded her early singing life.

As a young girl, Martell began singing in church and later performed with The Anglos, a family-based R&B group. That foundation matters because her artistry was never boxed into one lane. Her voice carried the warmth of Gospel, the phrasing of R&B, and the plainspoken storytelling power of country music. When she moved into country recording, she was not crossing into unfamiliar territory; she was bringing forward a sound Black Southern people had always known, even when the industry refused to name them properly inside it.

Her breakthrough came with “Color Him Father,” a country single that reached No. 22 and made her presence impossible to ignore. In 1970, she released “Color Me Country,” her only major country album, a project that placed her in history as the first commercially successful Black American female country solo artist. Martell also became the first Black American woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, where she made 12 appearances, even as she endured racism, industry limitations, and a country music system that benefited from Black musical roots while often denying Black performers the same room.

Linda Martell’s legacy did not disappear; it waited for a wider public memory to catch up. In 2021, she received the CMT Equal Play Award, and in 2024, her voice reached a new generation through Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” appearing in spoken-word form on “The Linda Martell Show” and “Spaghettii.” Her story is not simply about being “first.” It is about what it costs when Black women open doors that an industry should have never closed in the first place.

Today, Martell stands as a revered living elder of Black American Country music, with her legacy being carried forward through renewed recognition and through the forthcoming documentary “Bad Case of The Country Blues: The Linda Martell Story,” led by her granddaughter to help preserve Martell’s story in her own family’s hands.

Though she is not publicly active as a touring/performing artist right now, Linda Martell stands as living proof that Black American women were never strangers to Country music. They were always part of its soil, its sound, its memory, and its truth.

If you wish to donate to her forthcoming documentary, you can do so here: https://t.co/BeZsD6d66S

Photo: Linda Martell, undated promotional portrait, courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

[TSSAA @TSSAA]

Best of luck to two former outstanding TSSAA athletes who will face off against each other tonight in one of the greatest rivalries in sports. Sonny Gray (Smyrna High School) takes the mound for the @RedSox against Ryan Weathers (Loretto High School) for the @Yankees.

[Andrea Williams @AndreaWillWrite]

@Melissa_Kimble @GerrickKennedy And I love that she hired a Black ghost!!

[AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY @AfricanArchives]

Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer with her daughter, 1971.

As a result of a "Mississippi appendectomy” (forced sterilization), Fannie Lou was unable to have children so she & her husband adopted 2 local impoverished girls.

[Quincy Avery @QuincyAvery]

Legendary coach who maid 100 million on the backs of unpaid labor. Now wants to regulate the earnings of those who can finely earn fair market value. This is clown behavior.

[Andrea Williams @AndreaWillWrite]

@CoachBeede !!!

[CCC @moderndaybc]

"I can say, 'Yeah, Robert has millions in the bank and he's doing well.' But, I'm concerned about my people. 'What are my people taking home? What are these movies sending down to the kids?'"

Robert Townsend talking about his work to Ebony (June 1991).

[Liam Adams @liamsadams]

After the NAACP called for Black college athletes to boycott states that are redistricting Black-majority congressional districts, @AndreaWillWrite puts the call in historical context & juxtaposes it with the material realities of college athletics today. https://t.co/OKAkHNxDQP

[HBCU Alum @hbcualum]

70 years ago today, Florida A&M alumna and trailblazing tennis icon #AltheaGibson made history by winning the French Open at Roland Garros. The following year, she became the first Black athlete to win Wimbledon, continuing a legendary run that reshaped the sport forever.

[NBA Base @TheNBABase]

San Antonio libraries have launched a "Read Like Wemby" campaign featuring Victor Wembanyama’s favorite fantasy and sci-fi books.

Since launching, nearly 160 books have been checked out or put on hold, and local kids are taking photos with life-sized Wemby cutouts.

(Via @MirinFader)

[Polymarket Hoops @PolymarketHoops]

San Antonio libraries have launched a “Read Like Wemby” campaign, featuring Victor Wembanyama’s favorite fantasy and sci-fi books, per @MirinFader.

Children can read books that their favorite player reads. Since the launch, nearly 160 books have been checked out or put on hold.

That’s awesome 🙏

[Stefan Smith @TheStefanSmith]

Staffers who follow me, how many Black men in politics can you name at the Director or Manager level with approval authority on a campaign. How many have you worked for? Who on the campaign messages to that demographic? The answer is usually no one.

[marie @amalmariee]

Look at them 🥹🫶🏾

[Nina vs. the World @ninamonei]

Anyway, here’s my favorite clip from Joy James talking about the class divide between the Black middle class and poor.

[Vanderbilt Athletics @vucommodores]

Your @SBJ Athletic Director of the Year 🏆⚓️

[HBCU Gameday @HBCUGameday]

Huge news: Top ranked woman’s wrestler picks HBCU

DETAILS 👇🏾

https://t.co/3mJUHL8v9E

[Andrea Williams @AndreaWillWrite]

👀

[USA TODAY Sports @usatodaysports]

Marshall Faulk, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who now is the head coach at Southern University in Louisiana, has strong opinions about Black coaches trying to land football jobs.

🔗: https://t.co/YE19sVhBZP

📷: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

[Andrea Williams @AndreaWillWrite]

@jamesjonesesq Obvs

[Jeff Yarbro @yarbro]

Seriously?!? What is happening?

Are y’all saying that high school kids in the year of our Lord 2026 should not be able to access ‘Roots’?

Alex Haley is a Tennessean for the love of God and one we celebrate. That’s why there’s a museum in Henning and a statue in Knoxville.

[bomani @bomani_jones]

they still call themselves “rebels,” brother.