Bessie Smith Research Paper

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On April 15th, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a passionate blues singer named Bessie Smith was born. She was one of seven children born to William and Laura Smith. Her father died soon after her birth and her mother and two of her brothers died by the time she was eight or nine years old. Bessie soon realized that she had a usual and loud voice and that is when she started singing on street corners with her brother, Andrew, on the guitar for the money. By the time Smith was eighteen years old, she worked as a dancer for the Moses Stokes minstrel show, and soon thereafter she began to work for Rabbit Foot Minstrel, where she met Ma Rainey. Ma Rainey was a vocalist who took Smith under her wing and mentored her. For the 10 years, Smith continued to perform in different theaters on the Vaudeville circuit. Bessie Smith had a superb voice, sense of the dramatics, and precision use of words that it earned her her nickname “ The Empress of the Blues.” Bessie Smith was the most popular and successful blues singer of the 1920’s. In Philadelphia 1923, she met and married Jack Gee, along with signed with …show more content…
Bessie Smith’s career began to flounder due to the Great Depression and cultural changes. In 1929, her and Jack Gee had officially separated and by the end of 1931, she stopped working for Columbia Records. Despite these let down, Bessie, being the dedicated singer she was, continued to tour, and in 1933 she signed with John Hammond to record new material, hinting at the Swing Era. Smith continued to work for next few years, but on September 26, 1937, she got in serious car accident and later died of her wounds in Clarksdale, Mississippi at the age of 43. Bessie Smith music continued to play and gain new followers well over the years of her death. Smith will go down in history for being one of the highest paid black entertainer in the world, winning up to $2,000 a per week to sing her songs with that strong distinctive voice of
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