Bessie Smith was a renowned Blues singer, known for her low voice and expressive performance. After some years of singing and gaining popularity with an all-Black singing group, she earned a deal with Columbia Records. She released her first song named "Downhearted Blues" with Columbia Records and it sold more than 500,000 copies within the first year of its release. She began to tour across America with her band, earning an estimated $2,000 per week, an abundant amount of money for the time. Throughout the years, she performed passionately and soulfully in sold out shows. The venues she performed in often requested that she and her band stay for more performances. Smith was one of the highest-paid Black female artists in the country and was an essential part of spreading the music genre of the Blues.
Bessie Smith in 1936.
Jessie Fauset was a popular writer and editor during the Harlem Renaissance. One of her starting positions was as a writer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's magazine. She was soon promoted to be their literary editor. Mainly, she helped initiate the careers of Lagnston Hughes and Anne Spencer by introducing them to a nationwide assembly. They soon became primary writers of the Harlem Renaissance whose works are still highly popular and read today. Fauset additionally published her own novels titled, There is Confusion and Comedy: American Style. Her literary works were about middle class African American families in America and their challenges of racial discrimination and prejudice. She allowed for the world to experience the most influential authors of the Harlem Renaissance and shared with it the obstacles of being an African American in the early 20th Century.
Jessie Fauset