Hidden Figures: Fredi Washington

Actress Fredi Washington was born Fredericka Carolyn Washington on December 23, 1903 in Savannah, Georgia to Robert T. Washington, a postal worker, and Harriet Ward Washington, a dancer. At 16, Washington moved to Harlem to live with her grandmother and aunt. She worked as a bookkeeper for the Black American record company ‘Black Swan,’ and three years later, got a part as a chorus dancer in the all-Black Broadway musical ‘Shuffle Along,’ which also featured Josephine Baker. She toured as a chorus dancer with the show for four years, making enough money to support her family. In 1926, she landed her first theatre role, acting opposite Paul Robeson in 'Black Boy.’ Soon after her debut, she moved abroad to Europe for more acting opportunities, and toured France, Germany and England.

Washington returned to the U.S. in 1928, acting onstage and in screen productions, including the movie Black and Tan Fantasy with Duke Ellington. In 1934 she starred in what is considered her breakout role in ‘Imitation of Life’ as Peola, a Black American woman passing for white. Her role was met with critical acclaim, and the movie was nominated for numerous Academy Awards. Yet there was still a lack of roles for Black actors, and as Washington’s profile grew, she was often approached to ‘pass’ in real life and play a white woman on film. Washington refused to pass for a white actress in order to lead movie roles and became outspoken in her civil rights advocacy of roles for Black Americans in Hollywood. She was a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, which works for better working conditions and better opportunities for Black American actors, and from 1937 to 1938 she served as the organization’s secretary. Quitting Hollywood to focus solely on theater work and her activism, Washington moved to back to New York to serve as the administrative secretary for the Joint Actors Equity-Theater League Committee on Hotel Accommodations for Negro Actors throughout the United States. Washington was also an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Later in life, she also became a film and theatre critic, writing reviews for Black American newspapers and serving as drama editor for ’The People’s Voice, a New York weekly newspaper founded by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Washington was also utilized as a consultant for the casting process of many films and plays with racial themes. In 1953, she was the film casting consultant for Carmen Jones, starring Dorothy Dandridge; Washington also consulted on casting for George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. In 1975 she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975 for her work in cinema. Washington later contracted Alzheimer's and eventually died of a stroke on June 28, 1994 in Stamford, Connecticut. She was 90-years-old. in 2005, Imitation of Life was inducted into the United States National Film Registry and it has also been named one of ‘The 25 Most Important Films on Race’ by Time Magazine.

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Links:

Preview Clip: Black and Tan (1929, Duke Ellington, Fredi Washington) (YouTube):
   • Preview Clip: Black and Tan (1929, Du...  

Biography of Fredi Washington (YouTube):
   • Biography of Fredi Washington  

PIONEERS OF BLACK HOLLYWOOD: FREDI WASHINGTON – ACTRESS:
http://www.theheroinecollective.com/f...

Watch: Fredi Washington Refused to Live by Hollywood’s Racial Stereotypes:
https://timeline.com/fred-washington-...

Fredi Washington, actress with depth:
https://aaregistry.org/story/fredi-wa...

Obituary - Fredi Washington:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...

Fredi Washington (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredi_W...
The Fair-Skinned Black Actress Who Refused to 'Pass' in 1930s Hollywood:
https://www.history.com/news/fredi-wa...

Movie Biographies: Actress Fredi Washington - Star Of 'Imitation Of Life' (1934) - Was Too Light For Hollywood:
https://www.arogundade.com/actress-fr...

Fredi Washington - Biography:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913444/bio