Ruby and Ossie through the years

As I watched him, I felt something like a bolt of lightning, an electrical charge...I was very shocked because I had no romantic notions about him, and I never thought about him in any romantic way...I was wondering what was happening. It was one of the most unique experiences in my life. All I can remember now was the surprise of it and I'm thinking he must have felt something too, that's how surprising it was.

"They were the first couple of the civil rights movement and seemed to be everywhere during the '60s...Two theater rats. Two leftists...Their cackles have a way of melting into one another..." Wil Haygood

He was physically big, well-read and confident...He had already told me he was a genius.

Ruby once gave Ossie an inscribed picture of herself. Dear Ossie,When I think of you, let there be silence and no writing at all. Ruby. He smiled the country smile when she handed it to him.

"They set a high standard for all of us -- as actors and individuals. What unifies them is their devotion to the struggle" New York theatrical director Billie Allen

Ruby had to remind him, hands on hips, strong words in the kitchen -- especially after the three children arrived -- that she had gifts, skills, and did not want to abandon her career while he was chasing his own. "We tried every permutation of marriage -- and it worked out" Ossie Davis

We were the 'be there' people as Ruby says regarding the Civil Rights movement. They were wherever the movement happened to be...They'd all be there, somewhere, anywhere, some fight, some protest. "They have a political resonance not all artists have" historian Taylor Branch

For a period, they were blacklisted. They survived McCarthyism, though FBI agents trailed them around; they suffered pain of being out of work, and remained determined to keep raising money for families of lynch victims. "We were good at fundraising" Ossie Davis

Ruby and Ossie's politics could be called radical by some standards, constantly challenging the status quo, as they planted their feet on many and occasion to the left of the Democratic Party. Like Robeson, one of their heroes, their astonishing artistic credentials flowed into their political activities.