Billie Holiday was one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, known for her improvisational skills and raspy voice. She was born in 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia Fagan and Clarence Holiday, a professional guitarist who left his family to pursue his musical career. From a young age, Billie faced many obstacles. His parents' difficult relationship took a toll on his emotional state. She left Philadelphia to settle in a poor neighborhood where she was raped by her neighbor. His broken home was only the beginning of his troubles. When Billie began her music career, she was not accepted by all audiences due to her race. Despite Billie's fame and success in the music industry, she faced discrimination from the community while pursuing her music career as an African-American woman struggling with drug addiction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayBillie Holiday faced many difficulties even as a young girl. Her mother gave birth to her when she was a teenager, and her father left the family shortly after. She grew up very poor and lived in a poor neighborhood where she was raped by a neighbor at the age of 10. Her mother responded to the situation by sending her to a very harsh reform school where she was essentially punished for being raped. Victim blaming is still prevalent in our society, although it was even more accepted in the 1920s. Even though she was a victim of rape, Bille was punished by the school because at the time, Women were held responsible for the crimes of their attackers. She later stated that she never fully recovered from the experience and that it continued to haunt her. Unfortunately, Billie was raped again at the age of 14 and dropped out of school. Her traumatic childhood led her to become a prostitute until she was arrested. She then turned to music as a means of coping. This coping mechanism eventually turned into a career when she started earning money performing. As she began to build a following and rise to fame, Billie Holiday struggled with discrimination based on her race. As she traveled the country sharing her music, she was not accepted by many audiences, especially in the South. Segregation was widespread in the South in the 1930s-1950s when she was on tour. Despite her talent and fame, she was expected to use different restrooms, stay in different hotels, and even eat in different restaurants than white people. These bathrooms, hotels and restaurants never looked so nice and could be difficult to locate. She continued to film in the South even though the discrimination was taking a serious toll on her well-being. Billie has also been discredited within the music industry due to her race. Not only was she discriminated against by Southern whites, but she was excluded from her own race. Groups composed of fellow African-Americans did not always accept him. They wouldn't allow him to play with them because they thought his skin wasn't dark enough. She was only allowed to play with them if she wore makeup to make her skin darker. They even suggested she paint a red dot on her face to look Indian. Because she was discriminated against by both whites and blacks, Billie began to face a.