Today In Black History: Fredi Washington
One of the first African American actresses from the 1920s through the 1940s. She refused to pass for white.
Issue #903 Today In Black History, Monday, August 4, 2025
Fredi Washington was born Fredericka Carolyn Washington on December 23, 1903, in Savannah, Georgia.
Washington's entertainment career began in 1921 as a chorus girl in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along. She was hired by dancer Josephine Baker as a member of the "Happy Honeysuckles", a cabaret group. In 1926, Washington was recommended for a co-starring role on the Broadway stage with Paul Robeson in the play Black Boy. She quickly became a popular, featured dancer and toured internationally with her dancing partner, Al Moiret.
Washington is perhaps best remembered for her role as Peola Johnson in the 1934 film "Imitation of Life." Her portrayal of a young African-American woman who chooses to pass as white to escape racial discrimination was groundbreaking and remains one of the most poignant commentaries on race and identity in cinema history.
Moviegoers sometimes assumed from Washington's appearance—her blue-gray eyes, pale complexion, and light brown hair—that she might have passed in her own life. In 1934, she said the role did not reflect her off-screen life, but "If I made Peola seem real enough to merit such statements, I consider such statements compliments and make me feel I've done my job fairly well."
In 1949, Washington told reporters that she identified as Black "...because I'm honest, firstly, and secondly, you don't have to be white to be good. I've spent most of my life trying to prove to those who think otherwise ... I am a Negro and I am proud of it."
Despite receiving critical acclaim, she was unable to find much work in the Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s. Studios preferred Black actresses with darker skin, who were usually typecast as maids, cooks, or other servants. Directors were also reluctant to cast a light-skinned Black actress in a romantic role with a white leading man; the film production code prohibited suggestions of miscegenation. As one modern critic explained, Fredi Washington was "...too beautiful and not dark enough to play maids, but rather too light to act in all-Black movies..."
In addition to her acting career, Fredi Washington was a passionate and vocal advocate for civil rights. She co-founded the Negro Actors Guild of America in 1937 with Noble Sissle, W. C. Handy, Paul Robeson, and Ethel Waters. The organization's mission included speaking out against stereotyping and advocating for a wider range of roles. Washington served as the organization's first executive secretary.
Washington was also deeply involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), fighting for more representation and better treatment of Black actors in Hollywood. Because of her own success, she was one of the few Black actors in Hollywood who had some influence with white studio executives.
In addition to working for the rights and opportunities of Black actors, Washington also advocated for the federal protection of Black Americans. She was a lobbyist for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which the NAACP supported. It was passed by the House but lost in the Senate.
Washington was a theater writer and the entertainment editor for The People's Voice (1942–1948), a newspaper for African Americans founded by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Baptist minister and politician in Harlem, New York City. He was married to her sister, Isabel Washington Powell.
In 1952, Washington married a Stamford dentist, Hugh Anthony Bell, and moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.
She was a devout Catholic.
Fredi Washington Bell died, aged 90, on June 28, 1994, from pneumonia following a series of strokes at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stamford, Connecticut.
Today In Black History
In 1897, a Black accountant was appointed the Collector of Internal Revenue for Georgia.
In 1936, Black track-and-field runner Long John Woodruff won the Olympic Gold Medal for the 800-meter race in Berlin, Germany.
In 1936, Black track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens won his second Gold Medal at the Berlin Olympics in the long jump final, setting an Olympic record.
In 1962, the South African police captured and imprisoned attorney Nelson Mandela.
In 1964, the bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James E. Chaney were discovered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, in an earthen dam.
In 1984, Black sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis won the 100-meter race in 9.9 seconds, receiving the first of his nine Olympic medals over three consecutive Games.
In 1984, the African nation of Upper Volta became Burkina Faso.
In 1988, Congress voted to grant reparations of $20,000 to each Japanese American or descendant interned during World War II.
In 2005, Haitian-Canadian journalist Michaëlle Jean became the first Black person in Canada to serve as Governor General.
In 2021, singer and entrepreneur Rihanna was named as the world’s wealthiest female musician, with a wealth of $1.7 billion, as reported by Forbes.
In 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against four police officers for violating the rights of Breonna Taylor during an illegal “no-knock” raid that resulted in her death.
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Excellent! All new information to me (age 82 white). I used to watch a lot of old movies on TV and know of Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters and Paul Robeson. So much talent and skill. It is an outrage to see how it was "legally" caged in and hidden.