Self-definition and Safe Space

Growing up, Ruby Dee was able to self-define and construct a safe space for herself at a young age. In the evenings, Dee and her siblings would read aloud to each other poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Wordsworth, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. When she was a teenager, Dee submitted poetry to the New York Amsterdam News, a Black weekly newspaper; in Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins makes mention of the fact that “African-American women have traditionally used family networks and Black community institutions as sites for countering [controlling] images” (page 101).

In her later years, “Dee admitted that during those years she was a shy girl but that she always felt a burning desire to express herself” (NotableBiographies). In fact, her love of English and poetry motivated her to study the arts, and she decided to pursue acting. Her further inclusion in the arts was very important because “by advancing Black women’s empowerment through self-definition, these safe spaces help Black women resist the dominant ideology promulgated not only outside Black civil society but within African-American institutions” (page 101).

As a result of constructing a safe space for her self-definition, Dee “was talented enough and lucky enough to garner some of the best roles for black women in the 1950s and 1960s” (The History Makers). She was able to use her voice in the arts to share the stories of Black women in America, and the struggles of being a woman as a whole. Ruby became the first African-American actress to appear in major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut in 1965; in 1968, she became the first African American actress to be featured on Peyton Place.

Interest in Acting

I was interested in acting for a very long time. We would always recite poems if company came to the house, we always had to do something. I remember being very small reciting a poem because your mother's friends had to seat there and listen to all the children play the violin, that's what happened, that's what you did. My mother I think inspired me to become an actress. You know when a tree seems to be going a certain way, the atmosphere or the family , the spiritual environment at home, oh yes he's gonna be an architect. If that child is gifted in some way, he might really be an architect. The spiritual will of the family and then I think the elements conspire to move you to those directions is said you will go.

Performing a poem, "Daughter," while Odetta plays "When I Was A Young Girl" on With Ossie and Ruby. Clip originally aired in 1981.

My mother was a teacher, disciplinarian, she was always talking about education and we had to get good grades, she helped us with the work. She was really one-track when it came to education but she did want me to have a career in acting. It was she that I heard arguing with my father one night.

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Harlem during The Great Depression

Mostly I remember the people being put out in the streets, those who couldn't cope, and I remember passing by and looking at belongings on the streets. I was just standing there and having this thing sink into me that people were in the streets because they couldn't pay the rent and wondering will that ever happen to us.

I remember once a man came by he was talking to himself, he's looking at all these things in the streets, and then he went up a few blocks and he shot himself. I remember seeing two people take something like an oil cloth and cover up the people's bed and things that were in the streets, I don't know why that happened but the sheriffs could put you in the streets, so that the things wouldn't get wet in the rain. 

I remember my mother helping a neighbor, lending them food, baking stuff and taking next door to somebody. Those were the times that there was no television, we didn't have a radio, people came to your house, the children entertained.

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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.

Turning to Ruby, "It's been a wonderful life -- so far. No pressure now, love." Long as you didn't say was, she responds.

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Life partner: Ossie Davis

Ruby Ann Wallace was married to Frankie Dee Brown (blues singer) from 1941 but later divorced in 1945. In 1946, she got her first Broadway role in Jeb, a drama about a returning Black American war hero. There she met Ossie Davis (who played Jeb), and became close friends. They married on December 9, 1948.

Ruby and Ossie collaborated on several projects designed to promote Black heritage, especially Black artists. In 1974, they produced The Ruby Dee/Ossie Davis Story Hour for the National Black Network. In 1981, they produced the series With Ossie and Ruby for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

They have three children. Their son, Guy Davis, is a blues musician and former actor. They have two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad.

Ruby and Ossie were involved in and supported several other civil rights protests and causes, includingMartin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington. In 1970, the National Urban League honored them with the Frederick Douglass Award for distinguished leadership toward equal opportunity.

We would bring the whole family because...we couldn't hire babysitters and they had to have dinner. We just brought them all along but I can't say that people were always glad to see us and all our children...I grew up in a traditional way. It took me a long time to get it out of my head that my job was to stay home, look after the kids, and if money had to be made, I expected him to go out and get a job at the post office or do something - Ruby 

In 1999, Ruby and Ossie were arrested for protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by White police officers of the New York City Police Department.

Together, Ruby and Ossie wrote an autobiography, Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, in which they discuss their political activism, careers, family, marriage, etc.


On March 11, 2001, Ruby and Ossie received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

In November 2005, Ruby and Ossie were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award, presented by the National Civil Rights Museum located in Memphis, TN.




Source:
Notable Biographies
Wikipedia
Youtube