Regina M. Anderson

Regina M. Anderson (May 21, 1901 – February 5, 1993) was a multi-racial playwright and librarian. She was of Swedish, Native American, East Indian, Jewish, and other European ancestry (including one grandparent who was a Confederate general); one of her eight grandparents was of African descent, born in Madagascar. Despite her own identification of her race as "American", she was perceived to be African American by others, and became a key member of the Harlem Renaissance.

Born in Chicago, she studied at Wilberforce University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University before becoming a librarian at the 135th Street (Harlem) branch of the New York Public Library. In 1924 she organized a dinner for black New York intellectuals and writers, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. The dinner was one of the coalescing events of the Harlem Renaissance.

Anderson and Du Bois co-founded the Krigwa Players (later Negro Experimental Theatre), a black theater company. The Players produced her plays Climbing Jacob's Ladder (about a lynching) and Underground (about the Underground Railroad).

Regina Anderson was one of ten African American women whose contributions were recognized at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

She was the first minority to climb the ranks and become a supervising librarian at the New York Public Library and her struggle to break the color barrier has earned her numerous accolades.

Anderson outlived virtually all of the other members of the Harlem Renaissance. She died in Ossining, a suburb of New York City. Her husband was William T. Andrews, a lawyer and New York assemblyman.