Many jazz artists as we know them are very talented. Their talents are unique in that they can translate human emotions through singing or playing their instruments. Many have the ability to reach and touch people's souls through their extraordinary gifts. While this art of transforming notes and lyrics into emotional images may somehow feel natural, the audience has to wonder where their influence comes from. For Billie Holiday, her career was greatly influenced by personal experience, the effects of the Great Depression, and the racial challenges of African Americans during her time. The Great Depression was a major historical event that affected thousands of Americans during the 1930s. It was a time when economic decline left people without jobs as they struggled to keep their families and homes together. It was certainly a devastating moment for everyone. For African Americans, it was even more of a struggle as segregation and oppression of blacks was just as strong as when the Jim Crow laws were first established. “African Americans were only 64 years away from slavery, with de jure segregation relegating them to second-class citizenship and generally only the meanest, dirtiest jobs.” (Bilal) During the Great Depression, music and work were occupied by whites, and African Americans encountered great difficulty. Holiday faced racial challenges where her social status, as a young black woman, left her with only few employment options. Occupations such as laundress or prostitute were jobs expected of a young woman of her time. Beduya, 2The song "When It's Sleepy Time Down South", could perhaps represent Holiday's sadness and experience during the Great Depression. The phrase “Homesick, tired, all alone in a big city” can be… in the center of the paper… D. “Demanding Equal Opportunity: African Americans in the Great Depression.” Choice 47.10 (2010): 1995-.ProQuest Central. Network. November 15, 2011.Hamlin, Jesse. "Billie Holiday's biography, 'Lady Sings the Blues,' may be full of lies, but it gets to the core of Jazz Great." San Francisco Chronicle September 18, 2006: G.1. ProQuest Central. November 16, 2011 Jackson, Buzzy. A bad woman who feels good The blues and the women who sing them. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2005. Page No. Print.Schoettler, Carl. "Born with sorrow but sung with love; Blues: 'Strange Fruit,' the dirge about lynching, is forever linked to Billie Holiday. A new book about the Baltimore singer recalls the moment she introduced him." The Baltimore Sun, June 13, 2000: 1.F. ProQuest Central. November 16, 2011Teaching, Terry. "John Hammond's Jazz." Commentary 122.3 (2006): 55+. Academic OneFile. Network. November 16. 2011.