[1][2] She lived in Los Angeles from the age of eight[1][2] and after marrying Garner Van Grayson,[2] with whom she had a daughter and a son,[1] moved to Portland, Oregon.

[1][2][3] There she studied with Portland voice teacher J. William Belcher[4] and during the 1920s and 1930s, she performed on stage and radio as a contralto soloist.

[3][4][5][6] In 1929, before a performance at a concert in Seattle, she was advertised as "Portland's Famous Contralto",[7] and a review in the Northwest Enterprise said, "Mrs. Grayson proved herself an artist in every sense of the word.

[8][9] She was on the Portland committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1929[10] and was president of the Oregon Federated Club Women in 1936.

[18][19] One review of the film reported that Grayson "had never been on the screen before",[20] and that "absolutely unknown, [she] got the job by telephoning [the casting director], who was so intrigued by the quality of her voice that he arranged the test which landed her the part.

[24] One reviewer considered that the best acting in a film that otherwise disappointed was from the African-American actors, including Grayson, saying "They play naturally in settings that seem authentic.

A reviewer in Chicago wrote, "The best roles belong to Henry Scott as the framed Negro and to Jessie Grayson as his terrified mother, and they give living performances, illuminated by validity, deepened by compassion.