No matter how white I look, on the inside I feel Black. Today is the Sunrise day of Fredericka Carolyn Fredi Washington (1903), the African-American actress, best known for her role as Peola in the 1934 version of the film Imitation of Life, in which she plays a young mulatto woman. In 2007, Time magazine ranked it as among The 25 Most Important Films on Race. Fredi Washingtons parents were an African-American couple who both had European ancestry. In Hollywood, because of her fair complexion and green eyes she was urged to pass for fully white by studio heads, who said they would make her a bigger star than Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Constance Bennett and Greta Garbo. Fredi refused. 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. I am an American citizen and by God, we all have inalienable rights and wherever those rights are tampered with, there is nothing left to do but fight…and I fight. How many people do you think there are in this country who do not have mixed blood, there’s very few if any, what makes us who we are, are our culture and experience. No matter how white I look, on the inside I feel black. There are many whites who are mixed blood, but still go by white, why such a big deal if I go as Negro, because people can’t believe that I am proud to be a Negro and not white. To prove I don’t buy white superiority I chose to be a Negro. When Washington played roles in race films intended for Black audiences, she was sometimes asked to wear makeup to darken her skin. Realizing that she had few opportunities in Hollywood at the time, Fredi quit movies, moving to New York City to become an activist and writer. She was often dismayed that she didnt get to develop more as an actress. She was tired of being asked to pass or to play the stereotype of tragic mulatto roles. She wanted to perform in more complicated, versatile roles and frustrated, she quit acting and focused her efforts on civil rights. She was the entertainment editor for Peoples Voice, a newspaper for African Americans and was fearlessly outspoken about racism faced by African Americans. She worked closely with Walter White, then president of the NAACP, to address pressing issues facing Black people in America. She was one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild. She served as executive secretary, working to help Black performers get a fair chance in the entertainment industry and to secure better hotel accommodations for Black actors, who were often discriminated against while touring. In 1953, Washington was a film casting consultant for Carmen Jones, which starred Dorothy Dandridge. She also consulted on casting for George Gershwins Porgy and Bess, an opera performed in revival on Broadway in 1952 and filmed in 1959. She died of a stroke, the last of several, on June 28, 1994 in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of 90.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:26:48 +0000