Ruby Dee: A Black Feminist

I believe that Ruby Dee is a Black feminist from analyzing her community activism, and pursuit to always remain working, which she found to be her place for self-definition. In her later years, Dee established the Ruby Dee Scholarship in Dramatic Art, this scholarship is awarded to talented, young, Black women who want to become established in the acting profession.

In Essence's interview with Dee, she strongly stated that we women have a great function to perform. The world needs us. Female sensibilities are not being acknowledged, and we've allowed the antipeople to steal the children and are tolerating far too much: the assault on ourselves, the families of the world, permitting war and rape. More women are becoming enraged about these things and I think we're on the verge of doing something about them. Dee boldy promotes community activism, and the importance for women to use their voices with movements for justice in society.

Ruby B. Johnson
Creator of Ruby Is Her Name


Sources:
Essence
Notable Biographies

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.

SOURCE:

Video

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis Tribute

"The couple, who in addition to being married, have always seemed fused in mind and spirit as professionals. Indeed Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have been fighting and winning the artistic struggle all their lives."

"The graceful and elegant Ruby Dee, a celebrated actress of over 100 films is also a published novelist, poet, and columnist for the Amsterdam News"

"Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis are a love story for the ages. Their partnership reflects a commitment to excellence and to progress, and to always speaking truth to power. Most of all though, their relationship symbolizes a commitment to a love of themselves, of each other, and of course a love for the possibility of what this country and what this world can be!"

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis tribute at the One Hundred Black Men, Inc. in New York banquet in 2005. Directed and edited by Scott Marshall, and executively produced by Ana Carril-Grumberg.

Oscar nomination, racism, and Hollywood lifestyle

Racism destroys self-confidence, it stomps on daring, and that's what it does to our children. It shortens our reach because we begin to believe everything that is said about us, we buy into it. Not everybody does, some young people are stronger than that.

Ruby on the Tavis Smiley show discussing how racism impacted her early career in acting, and also diversity in Hollywood today.

Who is Ruby?

Born:
Ruby Ann Wallace


Birth date:
October 27, 1924


Birthplace:
Cleveland, Ohio

Home:
Harlem, New York

Nationality:
American

Parents:
Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace
Emma Amelia Benson
Gladys Hightower (birth mother)

Stage name:
Ruby Dee


Education:
Hunter College High School; Hunter College (degrees in French and Spanish), 1944

Occupation:
Actress, Activist, Poet, Playwright, Screenwriter, Journalist.

Spouse:
Frankie Dee Brown (1941-1945; divorced)
Ossie Davis (1948-2005; till death)


Children:
Guy Davis (blues musician); Nora Day; Hasna Muhammad

Health:
Breast cancer survivor for more than 30 years

Awards:
Grammy (2007; Best Spoken Word Album); Emmy (won 1 in 1990, nominated 8 times); Obie; Drama Desk; Screen Actors Guild (2007, Best Supporting Actress); Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award; Recipient of the National Medal of Arts; Recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors (2004); Academy Award nomination (2007; Best Supporting Actress); Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award (2005 by the National Civil Rights Museum); Westchester County Women's Hall of Fame (2007); Honorary Degree (Princeton University).


Membership:
American Negro Theatre; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Theater:
South Pacific; Cleopatra; Anna Lucasta; Jeb; A Long Way From Home; The Smile of the World; A Raisin in the Sun; Purlie Victorius; Checkmates; The Glass Menagerie

Films:
That Man of Mine (1946; 1st); A Raisin in the Sun; The Jackson Robinson Story; Edge of the City; American Gangster; Gone Are the Days; The Incident; Decoration Day; Jungle Fever; Do the Right Thing; Black Girl; Baby Geniuses; The Unfinished Journey (narrator); Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience in the Creation of Drama; The Torture of Mothers; The New Neighbors (narrator); A Thousand Words (2012).


Documentaries:
King: A Film Record...Montgomery to Memphis (1970); Color Adjustment (1992; narrator); A Time to Dance: The Life and Work of Norma Canner (1998; narrator); Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003; narrator); Beach: A Black Woman Speaks (2003); Lockdown, USA (2006; narrator); A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School (2009; narrator); Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2012)

Television:
The First Year; The Fugitive; Guiding Light; Roots: The Next Generations; Ossie and Ruby!; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Golden Girls' (guest appearance); Mr. and Mrs. Loving; Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years; China Beach (guest appearance)

Autobiography:
Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (2000)


Memoir:
My One Good Nerve (1998)



Source