Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as Bessye Banks, youngest child of George T. and Carrie O.

[3] At the age of 20 she married Richard Howard Bearden, with whom she had one son, Romare, born in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The family moved to New York City in 1914, settling in 1920 in Harlem,[4] where their home was a meeting place for intellectuals and artists, including such musicians as Duke Ellington and Thomas "Fats" Waller.

[5] Calvin Tomkins in The Jazz Cadence of American Culture describes Bessye J. as "a political force in Harlem...someone you came to when you wanted to cut through red tape and get action.

[3] She was also involved in a variety of civic activities and belonged to several organizations, including the New York Urban League, where she was secretary of the executive board, the Council of Negro Women, where she served as treasurer, and the executive boards of the Harlem Community Council and the Colored Women's Democratic League, of which she was the first president.