- unitid
-
{"value"=>"Sc Micro R-5002", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"20799", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1922-1981", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1922/1981"}
{"value"=>"1922-1941", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1922/1941"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Fredi Washington papers, [microform]"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"3 boxes."}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture</span>"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Born in Savannah, Georgia in December 1903, the third of nine children, Fredericka (“Fredi”) Washington came to New York at the age of 16, in 1919. She started her career in show business in 1921 as a chorus girl at the Alabam Club, and later won a spot in the landmark play <span class=\"title\">Shuffle Along.</span> In 1926, she obtained an acting role in the play <span class=\"title\">Black Boy,</span> starring Paul Robeson, and at the closing of that show sailed to Europe with Al Moiret as part of a dance act called <span class=\"title\">Fredi and Moiret.</span> Upon her return to the U.S. in 1928, her career accelerated and she appeared in three movies: <span class=\"title\">Black and Tan Fantasy,</span> a short feature with Duke Ellington (1930); <span class=\"title\">Emperor Jones</span> with Paul Robeson (1933); <span class=\"title\">Drum in the Night</span> (1933); and an equal number of plays, <span class=\"title\">Singing the Blues</span> (1930), <span class=\"title\">Sweet Chariot</span> (1930) and <span class=\"title\">Run Lil' Chillun</span> (1933), within a five year span.</p> <p>During this period, Ms Washington married Lawrence Brown, a trombonist in Duke Ellington's band (July 1933). The marriage ended in divorce fifteen years later. Her career, meanwhile, took a leap with her highly successful role in the two movies <span class=\"title\">Imitation of Life</span> (1934) and <span class=\"title\">One Mile from Heaven</span> with Bill Robinson (1937), and the play <span class=\"title\">Mamba's Daughter</span> with Ethel Waters and Georgette Harvey (1939). She also played a leading role in an all-black production of <span class=\"title\">Lysistrata</span> on Broadway in 1946.</p> <p>In the 1930's, Ms Washington actively participated in the boycott campaigns and the picket lines organized on 125th Street by her brother-in-law, the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (who had married her sister Isabel), to force Harlem stores, utility companies and bus lines to hire blacks. In 1938, she was a co-founder and subsequently Executive Director of the Negro Actors Guild, an organization which included among its officers Duke Ellington, Louis Amstrong, Ethel Waters, Paul Robeson and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Ms Washington also wrote a regular feature <span class=\"title\">Headlines and Footlights</span> (1944) and <span class=\"title\">Fredi Speaks</span> for <span class=\"title\">The People's Voice,</span> a weekly paper founded by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1938. In the 1940's and `50' s, she actively participated in the Cultural Division of the National Negro Congress and the Committee for the Negro in the Arts, two organizations dedicated to the equality of opportunity for black artists and the eradication of racial stereotypes in all forms of American culture.</p> <p>Ms Washington remarried in 1952 to Anthony Bell, a Connecticut dentist. She worked at the Stanford branch of Bloomingdale's from 1954 to 1980.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Fredi Washington Papers, 1922-1941, 1981, n.d., reflect both her private life as a married woman and her professional career as an actress and activist. The collection is divided into three series: Personal Papers, Professional Correspondence and Activities and Printed Matter. It consists of correspondence, contracts, programs, files from the Negro Actors Guild and the Cultural Division of the National Negro Congress, scripts, newspaper clippings, photographs and one scrapbook.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Fredi Washington papers, [microform] is arranged in three series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20799#c651090'>Personal Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series contains two draft resumes, chronologically listing the main events in her life from 1903 to 1941; two marriage certificates (1933) and one separation agreement (1948) between Ms Washington and Lawrence Brown; one 1935 notebook and newspaper clippings.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20799#c651097'>Professional Correspondence and Activities</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/scm/20799#c651119'>Printed Matter</a></div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Mrs. Fredi Washington Bell in 1982.</p> <p>SCM 82-65</p>"}
- note
-
{"value"=>"The following items were removed from the Fredi Washington Papers, accession number SCM 82-65 and have been sent to the division or section indicated, either to be retained or disposed of there. Any items that should receive special disposition are clearly marked. Schomburg Photograph Collection: Two boxes of photographs"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1922
- date_inclusive_end
-
1981
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Washington, Fredi, 1903-", "type"=>"persname"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"I. Personal Papers; II. Professional Correspondence and Activities; III. Printed Matter", "supress_display"=>true}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Researchers are restricted to microfilm copy.</p>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The Fredi Washington Papers, 1922-1941, 1981, n.d., reflect both her private life and her professional career as an actress and activist."}
- keydate
-
1922
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Fredi Washington papers, [microform], Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Andre Elizee; machine-readable finding aid created by Apex Data Services; revised by Terry Catapano.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1922
- date_end
-
1981
- date_bulk_start
-
1922
- date_bulk_end
-
1941