Sara Fitzgerald came to the Heights from Bellaire in 1975 because she heard a rumor: Someone was offering home loans to single women without a male cosigner - an uncommon practice then. She met with Marcella Perry at Heights Savings Association, one of the only banking institutions in Houston headed by a woman in the 1970s.

Perry granted her the home loan and the 30-year-old moved to the neighborhood where she soon fell in love with an old crumbling building built in 1918 by Polish immigrants. She eventually turned that White Oak Drive building into the landmark venue Fitzgerald's, earning her the crown of local music matriarch.

But now, at 68, she's being talked about not for her business acumen, but for what some are calling racist comments she made in an email conversation Feb. 7 with music producer Garrett Brown. The controversy has sparked calls to boycott Fitzgerald's, or Fitz to locals, threatening the standing of one of Houston's music institutions where thousands of artists have performed for countless fans since 1977.

Brown contacted the club owner to inquire about booking successful hip-hop act Starlito and Don Trip. After listening to one of the act's songs, Fitzgerald replied to Brown that she didn't approve of lyrics she considered misogynistic and that contained offensive racial expletives.

"Music fans that wear their pants with 18 inches of underwear showing ... buy little, tip little and create big disharmony - no thanks," read a portion of her email.

Fitzgerald said some of the email language that people are offended by are direct quotes from the artist's songs. Others have expressed anger about her comments regarding hip-hop audiences.

Since then, local musicians, producers and bookers have scrambled to find alternate venues in the city for shows originally scheduled at Fitz.

The public departure of artists is surprising to Fitzgerald. For decades little-known bands have sought out gigs at the club as a rite of passage. She takes pride in being the venue that will give an upcoming artist a chance, and always hopes to see them break into the mainstream.

Fitz hosted R.E.M. in the early 1980s while it was still a college radio band. She paid the band $100 and lost money on the show. And her roster of Blues acts includes B.B. King, Lightning Hopkins, Bo Didley and Etta James.

A dip in business

Fitzgerald said this week she's had some artists cancel on her, but others have called to take their slots almost immediately. Still, the last-minute cancellations have caused her to shut the doors on a few recent nights.

Despite the early dip in business and the deluge of social media backlash, Fitzgerald isn't exactly taking her words back. But she does think she could have expressed herself better when she declined to book the act, adding that she was exhausted and had just come off working "100 hours" at the club the night before.

"The language has been hurtful and that's not who I am," she said. "After my breadth of work for 40 years, being branded like this is hurtful."

However, a number of promoters aren't backing down from the boycott.

"Every show I've played there was a rap show with an audience that did not fit the description in that email," said Roosh Williams, a Houston artist who played his first show at Fitz in 2008. "I have no sympathy for any backlash she is receiving from her comments. How can you bash people who spend their money at your establishment?"

The conversation Brown made public on social media prompted Chris Wise to cancel four shows he had booked there. Wise, who grew up in Houston going to shows at the wooden two-story building, is a talent buyer with Margin Walker Presents.

"It's certainly unfortunate, but I don't hold any place so sanctimoniously with what was said," Wise said. "It wasn't a bartender. It's the owner of the club."

'Not a color issue'

Fitzgerald maintains her stance that declining to book the show wasn't racially motived. The "feminist in me came out," she said regarding some of the lyrics she found to be offensive to women.

"It's not a color issue. It's in rock 'n' roll too, and it's hard to filter," she said.

Drew Brown, a visiting scholar in African American studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at University of Houston, has studied race and popular culture. He said the type of language used in rap and hip-hop is heard in all popular music. Yet in rap as a genre, it comes from a group of people who have been marginalized and carry an attitude of resistance. The rejection of hip-hop by older generations is not a new phenomenon, he said.

"There's no looking past it (offensive language). There's just understanding the message and the culture," Brown said.

"People enjoy that music because it speaks to some of their realties. If you don't understand what those are in that music, then you're just not a fan of that music. That doesn't mean it's not good music."

Brown said it's unfortunate when people in positions of power criticize the genre because it affects how the music is perceived by those who don't understand it.

Still, some have stood by Fitzgerald through the controversy.

Mandy Parker, a former promoter who booked with Fitz and continues to do business through an alcohol brand she represents, said "I can only speak for me, as an African American female, that she's never come off as someone who is racist. I don't believe it was a racial attack."

Parker has known the club owner for three years and said she was disheartened by the words, but has talked with Fitzgerald over the years about different social issues.

"There's a mural on the back patio, and Sara's only request to the artist is that it included people of all backgrounds because that's what she felt Fitz is," Parker said.

The outspoken club owner said she will continue to book hip-hop artists without any qualms, but is concerned about the future of her nightclub.

"They were concerned I was being discriminatory towards kids with pants that hang low. ... The grandma in me came out. Did it hurt my business? Yes," Fitzgerald said.