Blues Empres in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South by Michelle R. Scott

Martin Luther King Boulevard is the main street in the African-American neighborhood of Chattanooga. At 200 East Martin Luther King Boulevard is located the Bessie Smith Cultural Center which is consolidated with the African American Heritage Museum. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) is known as the Empress of the Blues because she was the leading blues singer of her era. By the time she was nine-years-old, both her parents had died, and she and her brother Andrew began busking on the Chattanooga streets. Her career began with a traveling troupe and then an Atlanta Theater, and after her success as a Columbia Records artist, she continue to perform and became the highest earning African-American entertainer of her time. She died in a car accident in Mississippi. This book is not so much a biography of Smith or a chronicle of her musical career, although her youth is well-covered. Rather it focuses on trends in African-Ameican history and the development of Chattanooga as a center of Black cultu