... forced her to sleep next to the body of young girl who had died in order to teach her lesson. In 1928, Billie and her mother Sadie moved from Baltimore, Maryland to Harlem, New York. Once the arrived to the big city, they found that the popularity of the Jazz ... time at different public and private parties where musicians like Duke Ellington would come and perform. But in order to survive in New York, Billie and her mother worked in a Brothel as prostitutes. Once caught, they both were arrested for prostitution, Billie just fourteen spent one hundred days in a work house for homeless ....

• Word Count: 2313
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... back to her personal life. Mainly that of when she was a child. Because of Walker's argument, her personal evidence relates back to her experiences with her mother, as a child: During the working day', she labored beside "not behind "my father in the fields. Her day began before sun up, and ... her own private thoughts; never a time free from interruption "by work or the noisy inquiries of her many children. And yet, it is to my mother "and all our mothers who were not famous "that I went in search of the secret of what has fed that muzzled and often mutilated, ... is a good passage to u...

• Word Count: 1418
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

40 Cents in the Bank " Ohh that lady could sing. I remember my mother would play her records when we would clean up on Saturday mornings. It was a time I looked forward to she had such a different sound about her. I loved it. ... was not the best support system for Eleanora Fagan, the name given to her at birth. Her grandfather was a slave in Virginia and hard work was nothing new to her mother. Sally Fagan never married Billie's father Clarence Holiday. He was a guitar player in a band with Fletcher Henderson, and because of this gig he abandoned the family to become ... a performer. Too ...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901 to Mayanne and William Armstrong. Louie was raised by his grandmother Josephine Armstrong as an infant because his father abandoned him and his mother around the time of his birth. He started his life living in the slums of New Orleans. He grew up in a tough area known, as "The Battlefield" where knife fights ... and guns play were common. At the age of about seven he moved to black Stormville, back with his mother and his sister. Stormville consisted of dance halls honky tons and brothels. It was an entertainment district like London's Soho. ...

• Word Count: 1911
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... rotten" as a child (Seymour 68). His father, who was a butler for a prominent doctor, taught Ellington elegant manners, polished speech, and a care for his life as the middle class. From his mother, Daisy, Ellington received his spiritual side, which played a big factor later in his life. At an early age, Ellington wanted to be an artist; so like any other person interested ... in that field he took on art lessons. Ellington never knew how much demand art lessons required from him so he stopped taking them. Ellington's mother, again worried about her son, thought it would be good for hi...

• Word Count: 2286
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School