Pot experiments were carried out to study the effects of rice straw (RS) and rice straw ash (RSA) on the growth of early rice and α-diversity of bacterial community in soils around rare earth mining areas of Xunwu and Xinfeng counties in South Jiangxi of China. The results showed that the exploitation of rare earth resources leads to soil pollution around rare earth mining areas and affects the growth of rice, and the content of rare earth elements (REEs) in rice was positively correlated with that in soils and negative correlated with dry weight of rice; The addition of RS to soils around REE mining area can inhibit growth of early rice, and the dry weight of rice grains, shoots, roots is lower when compared with the controls, while the content of REEs is higher. The α-diversity of soil bacterial decreases, which promotes the growth of Pseudorhodoferax, Phenylobacterium and other bacteria of the same kind, and inhibits the growth of beneficial bacteria. The addition of RSA to soils had no significant effect on α-diversity of soil bacterial but promoted the growth of Azospira and other beneficial bacteria, inhibited the growth of Bryobacter and other bacteria of the same kind, significantly improved the dry weight of grains, shoots and roots of early rice, and reduced the content of REEs in these parts of rice. It can be concluded that RS is unsuitable to be added to the planting soil of early rice in REE mining area, while RSA is suitable.