Fredi Washington

Template:Infobox person Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington (December 23, 1903 – June 28, 1994) was an American stage and film actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. Washington was of African American descent. She was one of the first Black Americans to gain recognition for film and stage work in the 1920s and 1930s.

Washington was active in the Harlem Renaissance (1920s–1930s). Her best-known film role was as Peola in Imitation of Life (1934). She plays a young light-skinned Black woman who decides to pass as white. Her last film role was in One Mile from Heaven (1937). After that she left Hollywood and returned to New York to work in theatre and civil rights activism.

Early life

Fredi Washington was born in 1903 in Savannah, Georgia, to Robert T. Washington, a postal worker, and Harriet "Hattie" Walker Ward, a dancer. Both were of African American and European ancestry.<ref name="breakground">Template:Cite news</ref> Washington was the second of their five children. Her mother died when Fredi was 11 years old.<ref name=":0">Nzinga Cotton. "Fredi Washington: Active Promoter of Rights for Black Entertainers", New Nation (London, UK), June 16, 2008, p. 21.</ref> As the oldest girl in her family, she helped raise her younger siblings, Isabel, Rosebud, and Robert, with the help of their grandmother.Template:Citation needed

After their mother's death, Washington and her sister Isabel were sent to the St. Elizabeth's Convent School for Colored Girls in Cornwells Heights, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<ref name="Frank William Johnson 1994">Johnson, Frank William . "Acclaimed Actress Fredi Washington, 90, Has Passed Away", Philadelphia Tribune, August 12, 1994, p. 4D.</ref>

While Washington was still in school in Philadelphia, her family moved north from Georgia to Harlem, New York. Washington graduated from Julia Richman High School in New York City.<ref name="bourne">Bourne, Stephen. "Obituary: Fredi Washington", The Independent (London, UK), July 4, 1994.</ref>

Career

Early entertainment career

Washington's entertainment career began in 1921 as a chorus girl in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along. She was hired by dancer Josephine Baker as a member of the "Happy Honeysuckles", a cabaret group.<ref name="breakground"/> Baker became a friend and mentor to her.<ref>Veronica Chambers. "Lives Well Lived: Fredi Washington, The Tragic Mulatto", The New York Times, January 1, 1995, p. A27.</ref> Washington's collaboration with Baker led to her being discovered by producer Lee Shubert. In 1926, she was recommended for a co-starring role on the Broadway stage with Paul Robeson in the play Black Boy.<ref name="Frank William Johnson 1994"/> She quickly became a popular, featured dancer, and toured internationally with her dancing partner, Al Moiret.<ref name="bourne"/>

Washington turned to acting in the late 1920s. Her first movie role was in Black and Tan (1929), in which she played a Cotton Club dancer who was dying. She acted in a small role in The Emperor Jones (1933) starring Robeson. Washington played Cab Calloway's love interest in the musical short Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934).<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

Imitation of Life

File:Imitation of Life (1934) trailer 8.jpg

Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington in Imitation of Life (1934)

File:Macbeth-Opening-Audience-2B.jpg

Washington (left) at the opening of the Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem (April 14, 1936)

Her best-known role was in the 1934 movie Imitation of Life. Washington played a young light-skinned Black<ref name="breakground"/> woman who chose to pass as white to seek more opportunities in a society restricted by legal and social racial segregation. As Washington had visible European ancestry, the role was considered perfect for her, but it led to her being typecast by filmmakers.<ref name="Frank William Johnson 1994"/> Moviegoers sometimes assumed from Washington's appearance—her blue-gray eyes, pale complexion, and light brown hair—that she might have passed in her own life. In 1934, she said the role did not reflect her off-screen life, but "If I made Peola seem real enough to merit such statements, I consider such statements compliments and makes me feel I've done my job fairly well."<ref name="hobbs"/><ref name="breakground" />

She told reporters in 1949 that she identified as Black "...because I'm honest, firstly, and secondly, you don't have to be white to be good. I've spent most of my life trying to prove to those who think otherwise ... I am a Negro and I am proud of it."<ref name="hobbs">Template:Cite book</ref> Imitation of Life was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, but it did not win. Years later, in 2007, Time magazine ranked it as among "The 25 Most Important Films on Race."<ref name="Race">"The 25 Most Important Films on Race: 'Imitation of LifeTemplate:'", Time, February 2007. Retrieved December 3, 2008.</ref>

Activism

Washington's experiences in the film industry and theater led her to become a civil rights activist. In an effort to help other Black actors and actresses find more opportunities, in 1937 Washington co-founded the Negro Actors Guild of America (NAG), with Noble Sissle, W. C. Handy, Paul Robeson, and Ethel Waters.<ref name=":1" /> The organization's mission included speaking out against stereotyping and advocating for a wider range of roles.<ref name=":0" /> Washington served as the organization's first executive secretary.<ref>"Fredi Washington, Edna Thomas Honored by Guild", Norfolk (VA), New Journal and Guide, July 5, 1941, p. 15.</ref><ref name=":1" />

She was also deeply involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, known as the NAACP.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While working with the NAACP, Washington fought for more representation and better treatment of Black actors in Hollywood; because of her own success, she was one of the few Black actors in Hollywood who had some influence with white studio executives.

In addition to working for the rights and opportunities of Black actors, Washington also advocated for the federal protection of Black Americans. She was a lobbyist for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which the NAACP supported.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was passed by the House but lost in the Senate, which was dominated by the Solid South.Template:Citation needed

Later work

Washington played opposite Bill Robinson in Fox's One Mile from Heaven (1937), in which she played a light-skinned Black woman claiming to be the mother of a "white" baby. Claire Trevor plays a reporter who discovers the story and helps both Washington and the white biological mother (Sally Bane) who had given up the baby.<ref name="nyt">Overview: "One Mile from Heaven (1937)", The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2013.</ref><ref>Poster for One Mile from Heaven Template:Webarchive, A Cinema Apart website</ref> According to the Museum of Modern Art in 2013: "The last of the six Claire Trevor 'snappy' vehicles [Allan] Dwan made for Fox in the 1930s tests the limits of free expression on race in Hollywood while sometimes straining credulity."<ref>One Mile from Heaven, screening June 13, 2013, part of exhibit: Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, MOMA. Retrieved May 31, 2013.</ref>

Washington appeared in the 1939 Broadway production of Mamba's Daughters, along with Ethel Waters and Georgette Harvey. She later became a casting consultant for the stage productions of Carmen Jones (1943) and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>

Leaving Hollywood for radio

Despite receiving critical acclaim, she was unable to find much work in the Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s. Studios preferred Black actresses with darker skin, who were usually typecast as maids, cooks or other servants.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Directors were also reluctant to cast a light-skinned Black actress in a romantic role with a white leading man; the film production code prohibited suggestions of miscegenation. Interracial marriage was illegal in the South and many other states. Hollywood directors did not offer her any romantic roles.<ref name="courtney">Courtney, Susanm "Picturizing Race: Hollywood's Censorship of Miscegenation and Production of Racial Visibility through Imitation of Life". Template:Webarchive, Genders, Vol. 27, 1998. Retrieved May 21, 2013.</ref> As one modern critic explained, Fredi Washington was "...too beautiful and not dark enough to play maids, but rather too light to act in all-Black movies..."<ref>Ronald Bergen. "Between Black and White", The Guardian (Manchester, UK), July 9, 1994.</ref>

Washington had a dramatic role in a 1943 radio tribute to Black women, Heroines in Bronze, produced by the National Urban League,<ref>Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom, University of North Carolina Press, 1999, p. 172.</ref> but there were few regular dramatic radio programs in that era with Black protagonists. She wrote an opinion piece for the Black press in which she discussed how limited the opportunities in broadcasting were for Black actors, actresses, and vocalists, saying that "...radio seems to keep its doors sealed [against] colored artists."<ref>Fredi Washington. "Future for Negro Performers This Season Looks Very Dark," Atlanta Daily World, September 23, 1940, p. 2.</ref>

In 1945 she said:

"You see I'm a mighty proud gal, and I can't for the life of me find any valid reason why anyone should lie about their origin, or anything else for that matter. Frankly, I do not ascribe to the stupid theory of white supremacy and to try to hide the fact that I am a Negro for economic or any other reasons. If I do, I would be agreeing to be a Negro makes me inferior and that I have swallowed whole hog all of the propaganda dished out by our fascist-minded white citizens."<ref name="passing">Earl Conrad; "Pass or Not To Pass?" (June 16, 1945), The Chicago Defender.</ref>

Writer

Washington was a theater writer, and the entertainment editor for The People's Voice (1942–1948), a newspaper for African Americans founded by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Baptist minister and politician in New York City. He was married to her sister Isabel Washington Powell.<ref name="breakground" /><ref>People's Voice, Historical Society of Philadelphia, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2008.</ref>

Personal life

In 1933, Washington married Lawrence Brown, the trombonist in Duke Ellington's jazz orchestra.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> That marriage ended in divorce.<ref name="breakground"/> In 1952, Washington married a Stamford dentist, Hugh Anthony Bell, and moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

She was a devout Catholic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Death

Fredi Washington Bell died, aged 90, on June 28, 1994.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She died from pneumonia following a series of strokes at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stamford, Connecticut.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="breakground" />

Legacy and honors

• In 1975, Washington was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.<ref name="bourne"/>
• In 1979, Washington received the CIRCA Award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.<ref name=":1" />
• In 1981, Washington received an award from the Audience Development Company (AUDELCO), a New York-based nonprofit group devoted to preserving and promoting African-American theater.<ref name=":2" />

Filmography

• Square Joe (1922), her film debut<ref name=women>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Black and Tan (1929)
• The Emperor Jones (1933)
• Imitation of Life (1934)
• Ouanga (1936)
• One Mile from Heaven (1937)

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0913444

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• The People's Voice Research and Editorial Files (1865-1963) are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
• Erin Blakemore, "The Fair-Skinned Black Actress Who Refused to 'Pass' in 1930s Hollywood", History, January 26, 2021.

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