In 1916, five years before her big break in Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's musical Shuffle Along, Florence Mills performed in Chicago’s Panama Cafe as part of the Panama Trio. The other members of the trio were Cora Green and Ada "Bricktop" Smith, who would later achieve fame for the Paris nightclubs she performed in and owned.

Mills was famed for her birdlike voice, although sadly no recording survives of it, as well as her spontaneous dancing during her numbers. By the age of five, she was already winning contests for her rendition of the cakewalk and buck dancing. A keysheet of publicity photos of her hints at her pixie charm, which continued into her adult performing persona:

She was one of the most popular entertainers of the early 1920s in New York, London, and Paris, and yet, perhaps because she died at the age 32 in 1927, her fame has not survived. More than 150,000 people came to mourn her premature passing.

Only one full length biography of Mills has been published, Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen, by Bill Egan, which is available for use in the Library both at the Library for the Performing Arts and at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Schomburg also holds Mills's manuscript collection, among other collections related to the performer.

For children, the New York Public Library holds two books about Mills:

Harlem's Little Blackbird, by Rene Watson; illustrated by Christian Robinson. Also available in e-book version.

Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage, by Alan Schroeder; illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu. Also available in e-book version.