Hope all is well and that you are enjoying this wonderful season of Spring and renewal.
You know I am always happy to share good news about a friend or someone in our community, and I am over the moon about my brother friend, Jamal Joseph, whose book, "PANTHER BABY," has been selected to be a CBS TV series. Absolutely AWESOME!!!
Jamal is the consummate all around genius - writer, producer, artist, child development specialist. His IMPACT Repertory Theatre has transformed the life of many a child who needed the proper guidance to display his or her talent, into a major individual tour de force. They have toured all over the world, and have been nominated for an Oscar for "RAISE IT UP" with Jamia Nash, in 2007.
It's clear that Jamal has always been devoted to Black people, and through enhancing all our talents and capacities. Starting at such a young age, his awareness and commitment led him away from negative gang and street activities to becoming a member of the Black Panthers. I truly hope CBS allows him to display the story to its fullest.
Jamal was my writing mentor during my days at the Harlem Screen Writer's guild, and often mentioned he was in the process of penning the Autobiography. When he finally completed it, he as also in the middle of putting together a tour for IMPACT, among other things. I have so much admiration for his and Voza Rivers drive, energy, dedication and activism and the fact that these two empower themselves, each other, and so many of us around them.
Make sure you watch out for, and support PANTHER BABY when it comes out. In fact, get the book in advance of the movie - it's well worth the read. And most definitely support the series when it comes out.
My congrats to Jamal for yet another milestone.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria DULAN-Wilson
"PANTHER BABY" SLATED FOR NEW TV SERIES
Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
New Heritage Theatre Group is very proud to announce that its Senior Executive Artistic Director, Jamal Joseph's book "Panther Baby" has been selected by
CBS to become a TV Series.
Writer, Director, Producer, Poet, Activist ,OSCAR nominee and Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University School of the Arts in the Film Department Jamal is also an a co-founder of IMPACT Repertory Theatre. and heads up New Heritage's Film Division, New Heritage Films.
As a teenager Jamal Joseph wasincarcerated for his active participation in the New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Upon his release from prison he was introduced to Clarence B. Jones (former personal attorney to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Voza Rivers and Lainie Cooke who had recently formed Greenlight Films. Greenlight optioned Jamal's script Liberated Territory about his experiences as a young Black Panther . In 2012 Liberated Territory became part of the source material for Jamal's celebrated book Panther Baby.
Last week CBS announced Jamal Joseph’s gripping memoir "Panther Baby" will be adapted as a TV series with Gina Prince-Bythewood directing and The Queen’s Gambit‘s Scott Frank, Timberman/Beverly and Reggie Rock Bythewood producing.
The friendship between Jamal, the Bythewoods and Scott Frank is a treasured one . Jamal met Scott Frank at a session spent at Sudance. Jamal and Reggie Rock Byethewood met at the home of legendary fellow activist Yuri Kochimaya when Jamal was first released from prison. They have been friends ever since. The Byethewoods and Scott Frank have been constant supporters of Jamal's work including being donors to IMPACT Repertory Theatre the youth arm of New Heritage Theatre Group
Jamal and Voza, along with Joyce Joseph, Courtney Bennet and Alice Arlen began IMPACT REPERTORY THEATRE
in 1997 as the youth and empowerment program at New Heritage. Over the last 20 plus years, the IMPACT program has received many honors and has seen its members attend college, become professionals in many fields and also come back to run the program.
Over the years IMPACT has been honored by the support of many Below Harry Belafonte and the IMPACT members and Janet Jackson performing with IMPACT during HARLEM WEEK
-->By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
It was with a great deal of shock and sadness that I learned about the passing of my friend Eddie Ellis. This was a brother that got knocked down by the system, but refused to stay there. You might say that Eddie is a prime example of a Black man who would not be denied, no matter what they did.
A member of the Black Panthers, Eddie was falsely arrested for a crime he did not commit, and served 25 years in prison, but still emerged with a will and a determination to help brothers and sisters not suffer the same fate.
Eddie was "deep" - he had a way of observing you without your knowing it, and then, when he was ready, he'd speak to you, let you know what time it is, as well as letting you know whether or not you were on point, or "full of it" without being offensive.
We basically ran in concentric circles, with friends who were involved with Black education, empowerment and develoment. But, in 2009, that changed drastically, with the inauguration of a new president at Medgar Evers College to replace the former 20-year president, Edison Jackson.
It was during that time that I really go to know Eddie Ellis - so when I say he was "deep", I mean it. Now, of course, I was on the late show with this revelation. There had been so many others who were more than well aware of Eddie, and how impactful and important he was to the Black community: brothers who were formerly incarcerated, and were returning to society to make new lives for themselves owe Eddie Ellis a great deal of gratitude for all that he has done to pave the way for them to get higher college degrees, enter new careers, and become viable, valuable members of society.
It nearly came to a complete halt with the inception of William Pollard as president of Medgar Evers College in 2009. During the battle to save Medgar Evers and the Center for NU Leadership, I got to know him pretty well, and had the pleasure of serving with him on panels, rallies, and broadcasts centering on the reinstatement of the center, and getting rid of the ersatz president of Medgar Evers. I am happy to say we were successful on both counts.
In tribute to Eddie Ellis is a reprint of an article I posted on my blog on March 7, 2011:
Update:CUNY
Chancellor/MEC Pres Mock the Memory and Legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers:
Attack on Center for NU Leadership and the MEC Black Think Tank By Gloria Dulan-Wilson 03.07.2011
I'm going to start this off with a quote from Dr. Divine Pryor. It’s so
heavy I didn’t want to leave it to the end of this article: “For
the past seven years, The Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions
has successfully created opportunities for people entangled in the law
to access higher education as a way to transforming their lives. Our
attempt to secure a multi-million dollar grant was only an effort to
formalize what we have been doing informally over the past seven years.
It’s unfortunate that President William Pollard and his administration
could not appreciate the fact that members of the Center for NU
Leadership are living, breathing examples of what is possible when an
individual decides to transform their lives after making a mistake.
It’s
ironic that we can be proud of the fact that New York City has one of
the most effective garbage recycling systems in the world, but somehow
President Pollard doesn’t believe that a human being can be recycled.” Dr. Divine Pryor, March 6, 2011
Now
for those of you who have been following these issues, or who are
embroiled in the task of saving the school, the Medgar Evers College
situation continues “to get curioser and curioser” - to paraphrase Alice
in Wonderland. Speaking of which, given the specious assertions and
allegations on the part of CUNY’s legals, one has to wonder what they’re
up to really.
It kind of pivots between “here we go
again,” and “oh no! Not that stupid stuff again!” You can decide after I
outline the facts.
Fact:
Center for NU Leadership was founded by Dr. Divine Pryor and Eddie
Ellis some 7 years ago to help those who had run afoul of the law, lead
better lives by providing them with a college education, so that they
could make a positive contribution to society and their communities.
Fact:
Dr. Edison O. Jackson, then President of Medgar Evers College, in
wanting to provide services to a broader range of the population in and
around Brooklyn and the greater New York Area, invited Dr. Pryor to
establish an office for the Center for NU Leadership, so that those
previously incarcerated who were looking to change their lives could
matriculate at Medgar Evers College. Additionally, they maintained an
open door policy, so that applicants and participants could come in from
the street and be assisted in obtaining the education needed to provide
them with career strategies and goals. Fact:
Over the past 7 years Center for NU Leadership has successfully
assisted over 200 applicants graduate from Medgar Evers and enter into
such arenas as legislative offices, corrections, the court systems,
district attorney’s offices and non-profit organizations.
Fact:
For such a small staff that’s a major track record - particularly
since they are still fully employed, and continuing to make positive
contributions to the community, setting a positive example for the youth
and peers with whom they interact.
Fact:
President William Pollard doesn’t get it. His allegation that the
program exposed the campus to criminal elements, which, by the way, has
not been a problem in the entire seven (7) years they have been affiliated with
the campus, is a sad indictment on a person who looks like us, has a
similar pigmentation, but it all stops there - scratch that surface, and
there is something completely different lurking underneath. Howard
Johnson, who serves as provost, is equally culpable, as evidenced by his
hostile and aggressive actions against Center for NU Leadership, the
Bunche DuBois Center, faculty, staff, and students. But, in addition to
his not getting it - is the even sadder (read sicker) fact that he
apparently doesn’t care. Fact:
Chancellor Goldstein apparently really doesn’t care - about Pollard,
about Medgar Evers College, about the Black students, about the Brooklyn
Community. He is about the “my way or high way” approach. The only
thing is that the strings are showing and the puppet and puppet master
are both about to be caught up in them. Fact:
The eviction of Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions from
Medgar Evers College was heinous and unconscionable. It was based on
racism and stereotypes. It was an affront to the men and women who have
worked diligently to turn their lives around. And an even greater
affront to Dr. Pryor who has dedicated his time, talent, intelligence
and energy to developing what the prisons systems could or would not do,
a viable program that spoke (speaks) to the needs of those in our
community who have been disenfranchised by a system that would rather
criminalize them than provide them with the education they deserved. Fact:
The confiscation of the Center for New Leadership’s computers (which
they owned outright), and the confiscation of their hard drive was not
only egregious, but criminal on the part of CUNY and Medgar Evers
College. It not only violates their rights as an organization, but
there are certain intellectual property laws, copyright infringement, as
well as other rights to privacy that have been trampled in this newest
racist attempt to denigrate this organization.
Fact:
The allegation of a criminal investigation being their cause for
seizing Center for NU Leadership‘s property, as alleged by the legals of
CUNY, has no basis in fact. Not only were there no presentations of
warrants, or any of the other protocols that would precede a search and
seizure procedure, there has never been any necessity for an
investigation of any type until the fabrication on the part of MEC’s new
administration. Fact:
There is so little regard for Black people on the part of the CUNY
administration, that they apparently disrespected the Black elected
officials who tried to meet with them to ameliorate the problem and
bring, what they had hoped would be a positive solution to a problem
that has now mushroomed out of proportion. One community leader stated
very matter of factly: “White people having no regard for Black people
is not new. We’ve lived with that all our lives. But to have a person
who is supposed to be Black, participate in the dismantling of an
institution that has been built by the efforts of a community dedicated
to educating their youth, and providing them with a legacy, goes to very
heart of self-hatred; and cannot be tolerated.” Fact:
State Supreme Court Judge Kramer, who presided over the hearing,
Friday, March 4, 2011 in the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, could not
believe that the legals of CUNY were refusing to return the hard drive
from the Center for NU Leadership’s computers. (Judge Kramer had ordered
Medgar Evers to return to NuLeadership computers that the
administration had confiscated in
mid-December but that were purchased independently by the center). Fact:
Subsequent hearing date set for April 8, 2011, during which time the
CUNY legals will try to make those allegations hold water. While we put
nothing past their trying to justify their actions, and prove their
allegations (given the nature of the individuals involved), through
manufactured evidence, the fact still remains that there is not now, nor
has there ever been any reason to seize the materials, equipment,
supplies owned and operated by the Center for NU Leadership. Fact:
The Medgar Evers faculty issued a vote of no confidence in Pollard,
stating he is betraying the mission of a college presumably dedicated to
the academic needs of the urban poor and working class.
Fact:
On March 8, 2011, the New York City Council is holding hearings on
academic excellence and the necessity of cultural programs to round out
the educational millieu. The hearings will be held at 250 Broadway,
14th Floor hearing room at 2:00PM. We are holding a press conference
on the steps of City Hall at 1:00pm. Would like to have as many people
from the community present as possible. Fact: MEC/CUNY’s stupidity Brooklyn's loss and SUNY’s gain.
SUNY has offered to house the Center for NU Leadership, blowing holes
in the allegation that they presented a criminal element on the MEC
campus. If there was so much danger, why would SUNY offer them a
considerable increase in funding as well as space and support. What
Goldstein, Pollard and Johnson have essentially done is deprived the
Brooklyn community of an essential program that has provided services
for the growing number of ex-offenders who are returning to the
community. *(see press release below) NB: While SUNY will be housing the program on their campus, that should not obviate the demand
that a branch of the center be re-established at Medgar Evers with full
staff and equipment, immediately, if not sooner. In fact, faculty,
staff, programs that were in existence upon Pollard’s arrival, must be
completely reinstated and MADE WHOLE, WITHOUT PREJUDICE. Fact:
Under the leadership of President Edison O. Jackson, Medgar Evers
College had amassed some of the greatest minds in Black culture,
politics, history and leadership, including former New York State
Assemblyman Roger Green, Congressman Major Owens, Dr. Zulema Blair, Dr.
Brenda M. Greene, Dr. Betty Shabazz (deceased), Ambassador Pursoo. It
was a magnate for some of the greatest minds and leaders who frequented
the campus affording the students an opportunity to be involved in
leading edge issues and endeavors. The underhanded manner in which
these and others have been treated has left a stain on the schools
reputation as a center for higher learning and a magnate for genius. Fact:
Under the tyranny of Goldstein, Pollard and Johnson, more damage has
been done to revert the campus back to pre-Jackson days when the school
was floundering for an identity and direction. Fact:
If the Brooklyn Community, and the greater New York Community, the
elected officials, and the students, parents, and faculty, don’t act
immediately and take a stand for Medgar Evers College, the dream and
goal of a COMMUNIVERSITY will have been destroyed, right along with so
many other important programs and institutions we and our predecessors
have fought long and hard to establish in the Black community. THAT
MUST NOT HAPPEN. Fact:
My father used to say, “there’s nothing worse than an educated fool,
or the person who knows the cost of everything but the value of
nothing.” There is also nothing worse than a people or a community who
will sit idly by and allow the educational and cultural future (and
present) of their children to be trampled on, with out taking a stand. QUESTION: NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Contact and support the MECCoalition@gmail.com
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
PS:
I could not close this article without quoting someone else that Ive
admired for a long time, Dr. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in
California. He always spoke about "Turning your scars into stars." And to me that is precisely what Dr. Divine Pryor and Eddie Ellis have been doing with the Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions.
*IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS, I'M APPENDING IT TO THIS BLOG:
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions Finds New Home at SUNY Old Westbury College
Brooklyn,
N.Y. – In a visionary move, SUNY Old Westbury College, under the
leadership of its president Dr. Calvin O. Butts, has invited the Center
for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions to leave embattled Medgar Evers
College (MEC), relocate its operation on the Long Island campus and open
a SUNY satellite site in Brooklyn, thus allowing them to continue
working there. The leadership of the Center concluded that as long as
President William Pollard and Provost Howard Johnson are in charge of
MEC, they will never provide a favorable work environment for them.
Senior officials at SUNY Old Westbury say that NuLeadership has accepted
their offer and submitted a detailed proposal which “is being given
serious consideration.” The invitation by SUNY Old Westbury allows
the college to extend its reach into New York City, through Central
Brooklyn, and to provide greater opportunities for its students to
acquire internships, engage in community oriented research and have an
urban office that serves as a direct pipeline for future enrollments.
In addition to the invitation from SUNY, NuLeadership has received
offers to work with one of the largest labor unions in the city and to
further collaborate with a faith based academic institution. Both
these offers are being considered as part of an integrated and
comprehensive restructuring of their capacity building. The move to
SUNY comes on top of two outstanding Court victories for NuLeadership in
its multi-count lawsuit against CUNY which is pending in Brooklyn
Supreme Court. The suit challenges CUNY for their illegal attempt to
evict the Center, invasion of the Center’s privacy, theft of their
computers and confiscation of personal and intellectual property. In a
stunning defeat for CUNY and Medgar, the Honorable Justice Herbert
Kramer refused to grant their motion to dismiss the case. Instead, he
granted the Center for NuLeadership, represented by attorney Ron
McGuire, a temporary restraining order against the eviction, declared
the seizure of their computers unconstitutional and ordered CUNY to show
cause. The case is scheduled for additional hearing on April 8, 2011. The
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions is headed by Dr. Divine
Pryor, Eddie Ellis, Kyung Ji Rhee and Chino Hardin, who are all
plaintiffs in the lawsuit. It is the first and only public policy,
research, training, advocacy and academic Center in the country,
conceived and operated by formerly incarcerated professionals. It was
established ten years ago as an inter-disciplinary forum for scholars,
policy makers, legal practitioners, law enforcement, civil society
leaders, clergy and those previously incarcerated who are seeking to
influence and impact urban contemporary social, economic and criminal
justice issues. Its innovative policy and advocacy initiatives cover
both adult and juvenile systems from a community level perspective. According
to Dr. Divine Pryor, executive director of the Center, “this move to
SUNY is a major achievement. It is a natural evolution that allows us
access to the state university system. Since our involvement with the
criminal justice/punishment system is both national and statewide, our
moving to SUNY Old Westbury greatly and further facilitates the work.” The
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions will continue and expand its
public policy development, lead the national debate regarding the need
for a “nu-justice paradigm” in the adult and juvenile justice systems,
and offer instructional services, counseling and support to the formerly
incarcerated community in Brooklyn and throughout the state, with a
special focus on those seeking higher education. Eddie Ellis,
co-founder of the Center for Nuleadership noted, “We have worked with
SUNY Old Westbury’s President, Dr. Calvin Butts and Vice President Hakim
Lucas, for many, many years. Their commitment to justice policy
reform, system realignment and support for the social service work of
our Center has deep roots and is a perfect fit. We are honored to
accept their invitation. The possibilities before us are unlimited.”
NOTE: Subsequent to this, the Center for Nu Leadership was given space on Gates Avenue, where they continue their wonderful work of making sure brothers and sisters continue to pursue higher education and play a viable role in the community
Edwin Eddie Ellis served 25 years in
prison for a murder he did not commit, but he never let that get in the
way of living a life of purpose. In prison, Ellis became an advocate for prison education and,
following his release, went on to have a distinguished career and helped
other formerly incarcerated people find stability and success.
The former director of Community Relations for the Black Panthers in NYC, he was falsely accused of killing James Howard, whom he had never met, nor was there evidence to prove his guilt (but that's never stopped the NYPD before, has it?) He was sent to Attica, where he witnessed the riot of 1971.
He was later transferred to Greenhaven Correctional Facility, a
maximum security prison, where they actually had an electric chair called “Old
Sparky.” Instead of falling with the negative elements at Greenhaven, Eddie lobbied to have college programs made available to inmates. The warden allowed them to be in separate quarters from the rest of the prisoners so they would not be intimidated or disturbed. He and several prisoners began studying college level courses (Eddie had dropped out to join the Panthers). During that time he earned two associate degrees, a
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Marist College
Greenhaven (magna cum laude) and a master’s degree from New York
Theology Seminary (summa cum laude)!!
So, instead of doing time, Eddie Ellis, along with other inmates was using their time wisely, looking for they day they would return to society. But more than that, Eddie Ellis began putting together advocacy organizations for those former inmates who were likewise looking to return to society, but were having difficulties because of their previous criminal records. He once remarked that Parole Officers were more cynical than helpful, so if you were looking for resources, you either had to make them yourself, or stumble around on your own.
Eddie co-founded the Community Justice Center and became executive director The center
provided housing, education opportunities funded by the state and
federal government and assistance from social services programs. In 2002, it morphed into the Nu Leadership Public Policy Group, and began to focus primarily on justice and prison conditions. They recruited employees who had post-graduate and PhD degrees to work with them.
Their work did not go unnoticed. It was Esmeralda Simmons, director of Medgar Evers' Center for Law and Justice who invited them to move onto the campus. When it became the Center for Nu Leadership on Urban Solutions, Dr. Divine Prior, PhD became it's executive director, leaving Eddie with time to travel, do his radio show, "On The Count," on WBAI.FM, write his seminal book "The Real War on Crime," and participate in panels and forums. "On The Count" is the only weekly radio talk show produced solely by former incarceratees who have post graduate degrees.
In "The Real War on Crime," Eddie states that there are thousands of formerly incarcerated people who have received higher education degrees, but don't get the respect they deserve because others still define them by their past mistakes.
In addition to so many other achievements, Eddie Ellis received the Joseph (Joe) Galiber Award from the New York State Black and Puerto Rican Caucus; The Human Justice Award, presented to him by Harry Belafonte, among others. He also served as director of Metropolitan Prison Ministry at the historic
Riverside Church in New York.
While Eddie has made his transition, he left guideposts in how to carry on, and keep moving on the way forward. He is a brother who truly walked his talk. There are many who have him to thank for being able to live viable, positive, successful lives. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
I guess I'll miss his calling me "Queen Gloria," as much as I'll miss that raspy voice of his that never ceases to "nail it" when it came to speaking truth to power. Eddie Ellis was a king among men and a FBM. We're all blessed to have known him.
My condolences to his family, CNUL, the Brooklyn Community, New York, and the brothers and sisters he inspired through his caring and leadership.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Hello All: I just spoke with Terrie Williams, the Diva of Public Relations, who informed me that Ruby Dee's family held a quiet ceremony for their mother last Thursday, but plans are now in formation for a memorial service sometime in the near future. This, in the interim, is a reprint of the New York Times Obituary that appeared in the paper today, for those who did not see it. Gene Tinnie was so wonderful to have emailed to me and a host of others who were waiting to learn the details of a home going service.
My heartfelt condolences to the Davis Family, and to the millions of us around the globe who absolutely adored her and her wonderful husband. The blessing in all of this is that they are now reunited on the plane of action with the rest of our Ancestor/Angels - though they were never really apart because Ossie's spirit always walked with her. As more information comes forth about the date, time and place of the memorial service for Ruby Dee, I will keep you abreast of the updates.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Subject: NY TIMES OBITUARY: Ruby Dee, aRinging
Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91
Ruby Dee,
one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public
profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie
Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in
the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She
was 91.
Her
daughter Nora Davis Day confirmed the death.
A
diminutive beauty with a sense of persistent social distress and a
restless, probing intelligence, Ms. Dee began her performing career in
the 1940s, and it continued well into the 21st century. She was always a
critical favorite, though not often cast as a leading lady.
Her most
successful central role was Off Broadway, in the 1970 Athol Fugard
drama, “Boesman and Lena,” about a pair of nomadic mixed-race South
Africans, for which she received overwhelming praise. Clive Barnes wrote
in The New York Times, “Ruby Dee as Lena is giving one of the finest
performances I have ever seen.”
Her most
famous performance came more than a decade earlier, in 1959, in a
supporting role in “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark
drama about the quotidian struggle of a black family in Chicago at the
dawn of the civil rights movement. Ms. Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife
of the main character, Walter Lee Younger, played by Sidney Poitier, and
the daughter-in-law of the leading female character, the family
matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil).
Ruth is a character with
far too much on her plate: an overcrowded home, a troubled husband, a
young son, an overbearing mother-in-law, a wearying job and an unwanted
pregnancy, not to mention the shared burden of black people everywhere
in a society skewed against them. Ms. Dee’s was a haunting portrait of a
young woman whose desperation to maintain grace under pressure doesn’t
keep her from being occasionally broken by it.
The play had 530
performances on Broadway and was reprised, with much of the cast intact,
as a 1961 film. On screen, Edith Oliver wrote in The New Yorker, Ms. Dee
was “even more impressive” than she was onstage. “Is there a better
young actress in America, or one who can make everything she does seem
so effortless?” Ms. Oliver wrote.
The loyal but worried
loved one was a role Ms. Dee played frequently, in films like “The
Jackie Robinson Story” (in which she played the wife of the pioneering
black ballplayer, who starred as himself) and “No Way Out,” a tough
racial drama in which she played the sister of a young doctor (Mr.
Poitier).
Over the course of Ms.
Dee’s career, the lives of American blacks, both extraordinary and
ordinary, belatedly emerged as rich subject matter for mainstream
theater productions and films, and black performers went from being
consigned to marginal and often belittling roles to starring in
Hollywood megahits.
Ms. Dee went from being a
disciple of Paul Robeson to starring with Mr. Poitier on Broadway. She
was a featured player in the films of Spike Lee and an Oscar nominee for
a supporting role in the 2007 movie “American Gangster,” about a Harlem
drug lord (Denzel Washington); she played a loving mother who turned a
blind eye to her son’s criminality.
But Ms. Dee not only took
part in that evolution; through her visibility in a wide range of
projects, from classics onstage to contemporary film dramas to
television soap operas, she also helped bring it about.
In 1965, playing Cordelia
in “King Lear” and Kate in “The Taming of the Shrew,” she was the first
black woman to appear in major roles at the American Shakespeare
Festival in Stratford, Conn. In 1968, she became the first black actress
to be featured regularly on the titillating prime-time TV series “Peyton
Place.”
She appeared in two of
Mr. Lee’s earliest films, “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever.” (On
Thursday, Michelle Obama tweeted about Ms. Dee: “I’ll never forget
seeing her in ‘Do the Right Thing’ on my first date with
Barack.”)
Ms. Dee picketed Broadway
theaters that were not employing black actors for their shows and spoke
out against film crews that hired few or no blacks.
Having made her name in
films that addressed racial issues, she began seeking out more of them.
She collaborated with the director Jules Dassin on the screenplay for
“Up Tight!,” a 1968 adaptation of “The Informer,” Liam O’Flaherty’s 1925
novel set after the Irish civil war. (It had also been filmed by John
Ford.) Mr. Dassin and Ms. Dee shifted the tale of betrayal among
revolutionaries to 1960s Cleveland; Ms. Dee played a welfare mother who
helped feed her family by resorting to prostitution.
She also lent her voice
and presence to the cause of racial equality outside show business. She
was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People.
At the Tony Awards
ceremony on Sunday, Audra McDonald, in accepting her sixth acting award
for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and
Grill,” acknowledged Ms. Dee as one of five black women whose shoulders
she stands upon. (The others were Holiday, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll
and Lena Horne.)
A revival of “Raisin in
the Sun,” now playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway, the
same stage as the original production, won three Tonys, including one
for Sophie Okonedo, who plays Ruth Younger. In a statement, Ms. Okonedo
called Ms. Dee “one of my heroines.”
Ruby Ann Wallace, as she
was known when she was born in Cleveland on Oct. 27, 1922, grew up in
Harlem. The third child of teenage parents, she was reared mostly by her
father, Marshall Wallace, who became a waiter on the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and his second wife, the former Emma Amelia Benson, a
college-educated teacher who was 13 years older than he. Ms. Dee
described her as a strict but loving mother, a stickler for elocution
and the person who introduced her to poetry, music and
dance.
By the mid-1940s, when
she graduated from Hunter College, Ms. Dee was already a working
actress, having appeared on Broadway and in productions of the American
Negro Theater, then a fledgling professional company housed in the
basement of the Harlem branch of the New York Public
Library.
She had also been
married, in 1941, to the singer Frankie Dee Brown. The marriage
dissolved within four years, but it gave Ms. Dee the name by which she
would be known for the rest of her life.
She made her Broadway
debut in December 1943 in a short-lived play called “South Pacific,”
unrelated to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that came along more
than five years later. In 1946 she joined the cast of a Broadway-bound
play called “Jeb,” about a black soldier who has lost a leg in World War
II and discovers that his sacrifice for his country is of little value
in the face of the racism he encounters on his return home.
Hired as the understudy
for the role of Libby, the title character’s loving girlfriend, Ms. Dee
not only replaced the original actress in the role before opening night
but also fell in love with the star, Ossie Davis. The show lasted for
nine performances, the relationship nearly 60 years, until Mr. Davis’s
death in 2005. They married in 1948.
Besides her daughter
Nora, Ms. Dee is survived by another daughter, Hasna Muhammad; a son,
the singer Guy Davis; a sister, Angelina Roach; and seven
grandchildren.
The partnership between
Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis was romantic, familial, professional, artistic and
political, and they jointly received the National Medal of Arts from
President Bill Clinton.
During their careers they
performed together many times, including in “Raisin,” when Mr. Davis
took over the stage role of Walter Younger from Mr. Poitier, and in
“Purlie Victorious,” Mr. Davis’s own broad satire about a charismatic
preacher in the Jim Crow South, on Broadway in 1961 and in the 1963 film
version, “Gone Are the Days!”
In 1998 they published a
joint autobiography, “With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together,” to
commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary. The book is remarkable for
its candor, not only about their careers and upbringings but also about
their intimate lives, together and apart, and their reflections on race
relations, politics and art. Told in separate, alternating voices, it
was a book-length public conversation that testified to a lifelong
private one.
Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis
stood together, far to the political left, on behalf of numerous causes.
They spoke out in the 1950s against the executions of Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg and against the persecution of American Communists (and
purported Communists) in the investigations by Senator Joseph McCarthy
and the House Un-American Activities Committee. When, under the McCarran
Internal Security Act, the government revoked the passport of Robeson,
the great black actor, singer and outspoken socialist, they helped
organize the campaign to have it restored.
They were friends and
supporters of both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X,
whose eulogy, after his assassination in 1965, was delivered
by Mr. Davis. On Aug. 28, 1963, the day of the March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom, which culminated in Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream”
speech, Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis were the M.C.'s of the entertainment event
at the foot of the Washington Monument that preceded the march to the
Lincoln Memorial. They raised money for the Black Panthers. They
demonstrated against the Vietnam War.
In 2005 Ms. Dee received
a lifetime achievement award from the National Civil Rights Museum in
Memphis.
“You can only appreciate
freedom,” she said then, “when you find yourself in a position to fight
for someone else’s freedom and not worry about your own.”
Correction: June 12, 2014
An earlier version of
this obituary misstated the name of Ms. Dee’s first husband. He was
Frankie Dee Brown, not Freddie Dee Brown.
Correction: June 13, 2014
An earlier version of
this obituary referred imprecisely to the part Sidney Poitier played in
the film “No Way Out,” in which Ms. Dee also appeared. He was a doctor
in a county hospital that had a prison ward; he was not a prison
doctor.
A version of this article
appears in print on June 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition
with the headline: Ruby Dee, Actress and Activist, Dies at 91.
