Editing Scott Joplin (section)

==Early life==
Joplin was the second of six children<ref name="jasen2">{{cite book|last=Jasen|first=David A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNuwiKJPtnwC&q=Scott+Joplin+Myrtle&pg=PT129|title=Ragtime: An Encyclopedia, Discography, and Sheetography|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2007|isbn=978-0-415-97862-0|location=New York|page=109|access-date=February 24, 2013}}</ref> born to Giles Joplin, a former slave from [[North Carolina]], and Florence Givens, a freeborn African-American woman from [[Kentucky]].<ref>[[#J&T|Jasen & Tichenor (1978)]] p. 82.</ref><ref name="LindenBirthplace2">{{cite web|title=Scott Joplin|url=http://ctmh.its.txstate.edu/artist.php?cmd=detail&aid=29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722035103/http://ctmh.its.txstate.edu/artist.php?cmd=detail&aid=29|archive-date=July 22, 2011|access-date=November 22, 2006|publisher=Texas Music History Online}}</ref>{{sfnp|Morath|2005|p=32}} His birth date was accepted by early biographers [[Rudi Blesh]] and [[James Haskins]] as November 24, 1868,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Haskins|first=James|author-link=James Haskins|title=Scott Joplin|publisher=Doubleday|year=1978|isbn=0-385-11155-X|location=Garden City, New York|page=32|url=https://archive.org/details/scottjoplin00hask|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name=Blesh>{{harvp|Blesh|1981|page=xiv}}</ref> although later biographer [[Edward A. Berlin]] showed this was most likely incorrect. It is generally accepted he was born between the summer of 1867 and January 1868.<ref name=":1">{{harvp|Berlin|page=147}}</ref> There is disagreement over his exact place of birth in Texas, with Blesh identifying Texarkana,<ref name=Blesh /> and Berlin showing the earliest record of Joplin being the June 1870 census which locates him as a two-year-old in [[Linden, Texas|Linden]] (about 40 miles from Texarkana).<ref name="Berlin">{{Cite web|last=Berlin|first=Ed|author-link=Edward A. Berlin|title=Scott Joplin – the man and his music|url=https://www.scottjoplin.org/joplin-biography.html|access-date=June 14, 2020|website=Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival|archive-date=May 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519053143/https://www.scottjoplin.org/joplin-biography.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfnp|Berlin|1994|pages=4–5}}

By 1880, the Joplins had moved to Texarkana, Arkansas, where Giles worked as a railroad laborer and Florence as a cleaner. As Joplin's father had played the [[violin]] for plantation parties in North Carolina and his mother sang and played the [[banjo]],<ref name="jasen2" /> Joplin was given a rudimentary musical education by his family, and from the age of seven he was allowed to play the piano while his mother cleaned.{{sfnp|Berlin|1994|p=6}}

At some point in the early 1880s, Giles Joplin left the family for another woman and Florence struggled to support her children through domestic work. Biographer Susan Curtis speculates that Florence's support of her son's musical education was a critical factor behind her separation from Giles, who wanted the boy to pursue practical employment that would supplement the family income.<ref name=Curtis38>[[#Curtis|Curtis (2004)]] p. 38. </ref>

At 16, Joplin performed in a vocal quartet with three other boys in and around Texarkana, also playing piano. He also taught guitar and [[mandolin]].<ref name=Berlin7-8>{{harvp|Berlin|1994|pp=7–8}}</ref> According to a family friend, the young Joplin was serious and ambitious in studying music and playing the piano after school. While a few local teachers aided him, he received most of his musical education from [[Julius Weiss]], a [[History of the Jews in Germany|German-born]] [[American Jews|American Jewish]] music professor who had immigrated to Texas in the late 1860s and was employed as music tutor by a prominent local business family.<ref name=Albrecht/> Weiss, as described by ''[[San Diego Jewish World]]'' writer Eric George Tauber, "was no stranger to [receiving] race hatred ... As a Jew in Germany, he was often slapped and called a 'Christ-killer.{{'"}}<ref>[http://www.sdjewishworld.com/2014/09/28/play-scott-joplin-electrifying/ "Play about Scott Joplin is electrifying."] Tauber, Eric George. ''[[San Diego Jewish World]].'' sdjewishworld.com. Published September 28, 2014. Accessed November 6, 2017.</ref> Weiss had studied music at a German university and was listed in town records as a professor of music. Impressed by Joplin's talent, and realizing the Joplin family's dire straits, Weiss taught him free of charge. While tutoring Joplin from the ages of 11 to 16, Weiss introduced him to [[Folk music|folk]] and classical music, including opera. Weiss helped Joplin appreciate music as an "art as well as an entertainment"<ref name=Berlin7-8/> and helped Florence acquire a used piano. According to Joplin's widow Lottie, Joplin never forgot Weiss. In his later years, after achieving fame as a composer, Joplin sent his former teacher "gifts of money when he was old and ill" until Weiss died.<ref name=Albrecht>[[#Albrecht|Albrecht (1979)]] pp. 89–105.</ref>