Pearl Mae Bailey was born in Newport News, Virginia, on March 29, 1918, to Reverend Joseph James Bailey and Ella Bailey.
Pearl Mae Bailey was born on March 29, 1918, in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of a Pentecostal minister, Reverend Joseph James Bailey, and his wife Ella. She grew up in a working-class African American family during an era of pervasive segregation in the American South, and her earliest exposure to performance came through singing in her father's church.
Her family later moved to Washington, D.C., where Bailey came of age amid the vibrant Black cultural life of the U Street corridor, sometimes called 'Black Broadway.' These formative years, steeped in gospel music, community resilience, and the realities of Jim Crow segregation, shaped the wit, warmth, and resourcefulness that would later define her stage persona.
Bailey began performing publicly as a teenager, entering amateur talent contests in Washington and Philadelphia, including the famed Apollo Theater's amateur night in Harlem, which she won. This early success set her on a path toward a professional entertainment career at a time when opportunities for Black women performers were severely limited, requiring extraordinary talent and persistence to break through into mainstream venues.
Her birth is commemorated as the beginning of a life that would go on to reshape American musical theater, film, and television, and pave the way for greater visibility of African American performers in mainstream entertainment.