Editing Bessie Smith (section)

=== Early life ===
[[File:BessieSmith.jpg|alt=Portrait of Bessie Smith, 1936|thumb|331x331px|Smith in 1936]]
The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], in July 1892.<ref>{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| date= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= [[Praeger Publishing|Praeger]]| location= [[Santa Barbara, California]]| page=50 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZNfAQAAQBAJ | isbn= 978-0313344237}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOiUGGRPTlQC&pg=PA152|page=152|title=Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South|last=Scott|first=Michelle R.|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|location=[[Urbana, Illinois]]|date=2008|isbn=9780252092374}}</ref><ref>1900 US census, Hamilton, Tennessee, Schedule 1, Chattanooga Ward 04, District 0060, p.23.</ref> The 1910 census gives her age as 16,<ref>1910 US Census, Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee, Ward 7, Enumeration District 0065, Sheet 2B, Family No. 48.</ref> and a birth date of April 15, 1894, which appears on subsequent documents and was observed as her birthday by the Smith family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report several older siblings or half-siblings.

Smith was the daughter of Laura and William Smith, a laborer and part-time [[Black church|Baptist preacher]] (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the [[gospel]]", in [[Moulton, Alabama|Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama]]). He died while his daughter was too young to remember him. By the time Bessie was nine, her mother and a brother had also died and her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings. As a consequence, Bessie was unable to gain an education.<ref name="Albertson2003">{{cite book|last=Albertson|first=Chris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MjtZAwAAQBAJ|title=Bessie|publisher=[Yale University Press]|year=2003|isbn=0-300-09902-9|location=New Haven|author-link=Chris Albertson}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=David A. |last1=Jasen |first2=Gene |last2=Jones |title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880–1930 |publisher=[[Schirmer Books]] |location=[[New York City]] |date=September 1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/289 289] |isbn=978-0-02-864742-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/289}}</ref>

Due to her parents' death and her poverty, Bessie experienced a "wretched childhood."<ref name="Moore 1969"/> To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie and her brother Andrew [[busking|busked]] on the streets of [[Chattanooga]]. She sang and danced as he played the [[guitar]]. They often performed on "street corners for pennies,"<ref name="Moore 1969"/> and their habitual location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets, in the heart of the city's African-American community.

In 1904, her oldest brother Clarence left home and joined a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."<ref>Albertson, 2003, p. 11.</ref>

In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged an audition for his sister with the troupe managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher. Bessie was hired as a dancer rather than a vocalist since the company already included popular singer [[Ma Rainey]].<ref name="Moore 1969"/> Contemporary accounts indicate that, while Ma Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she likely helped her develop a stage presence.<ref>Albertson, 2003, pp. 14–15.</ref> Smith eventually moved on to performing in [[chorus line]]s, making the "81" Theatre in [[Atlanta]] her home base. She also performed in shows on the black-owned [[Theater Owners Booking Association]] (T.O.B.A.) circuit and would become one of its major attractions.