Fredi Washington - Acting Career

Acting Career

Washington started her career as a dancer in the broadway play, Shuffle Along. She was in a few of the first black Broadway shows. Because of her beauty and talent, she easily moved up as a popular featured dancer. She toured internationally with a dance team. During this period she befriended many African American legends including Josephine Baker.

She is best known for her acting career. Washington's first movie role was in Black and Tan (1929) where she played a dying dancer. She had a small part in The Emperor Jones (1933) with Paul Robeson, based on the play by Eugene O'Neill.

In Imitation of Life, Washington played a young African-American woman who chose to pass as white to seek more opportunities in a society limited by legal racial discrimination in some states and social discrimination in others. The film was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2007, Time magazine named it among "The 25 Most Important Films on Race".

Washington turned down a number of chances to pass for white as an actress, which might have led to greater acting. She had a light complexion and green eyes. Her beauty and appearance led directors to choose darker-skinned actresses for the stereotypical "maid" roles offered to black actresses in those years. At the same time, Hollywood directors did not offer her romantic roles with leading white actors. When Washington played roles in race films intended for black audiences, she often wore heavy makeup to darken her skin. Washington had a role (4th billing) in Fox's One Mile from Heaven (1937).

Realizing that she had few opportunities in Hollywood at the time, Washington quit movies and returned to New York to work in theater. Fredi was often dismayed that she didn't get to grow as an actress, and tired of being asked to pass or to play "tragic mulatto" roles, another stereotype. She wanted to perform in more complicated, versatile roles. Frustrated, she quit acting and focused her efforts on African American civil rights.

Washington became a theater writer. She was the Entertainment Editor for People's Voice, a newspaper for African Americans founded by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., a Baptist minister and politician in New York City. It was published 1942-1948.

A very intelligent woman, Fredi 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.

Her experiences in the film industry led her to become a civil rights activist. Together with Noble Sissle, W.C. Handy and Dick Campbell, Washington was a founding member with Alan Corelli of the Negro Actors Guild of America (NAG) in New York in 1937. She served as executive secretary, and worked for better opportunities for African-American actors. She also was active with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and worked to secure better hotel accommodations for black actors, who were often discriminated against, as well as less stereotyping and discrimination in roles.

In 1953, Washington was a film casting consultant for Carmen Jones, which starred Dorothy Dandridge, another pioneering African-American actress. She also consulted on casting for George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, an opera performed in revival in 1952 and filmed in 1959.