Another Legend Gone
Just two weeks after the passing of Maya Angelou, another great artist and humanitarian has left us, the actress and activist Ruby Dee. With thanks to the New York Times:
Ruby Dee, one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 91.
Her most famous performance came in 1959, in a supporting role in “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark drama about the quotidian struggle of a black family in Chicago at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Ms. Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife of the main character, Walter Lee Younger, played by Sidney Poitier.
Over the course of Ms. Dee’s career, the lives of American blacks, both extraordinary and ordinary, belatedly emerged as rich subject matter for mainstream theater productions and films, and black performers went from being consigned to marginal and often belittling roles to starring in Hollywood megahits.
She also lent her voice and presence to the cause of racial equality outside show business. She was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Ms. Dee and her husband Ossie Davis were friends and supporters of both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, whose eulogy, after his assassination in 1965, was delivered by Mr. Davis. On Aug. 28, 1963, the day of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which culminated in Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis were the M.C.’s of the entertainment event at the foot of the Washington Monument that preceded the march to the Lincoln Memorial. They raised money for the Black Panthers. They demonstrated against the Vietnam War.
In 2005 Ms. Dee received a lifetime achievement award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
“You can only appreciate freedom,” she said then, “when you find yourself in a position to fight for someone else’s freedom and not worry about your own.”
R.I.P. Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014)
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Yes, yet another one of the ‘old school’ gone Laurie. I’m sure i remember her in something with the great Sidney Poitier some while back, and being nominated for endless awards. A great lady and fighter for her cause.
Now regretting having missed reading Pearl Bailey’s 1st book, The Raw Pearl, I am presently reading her 2nd, the 1971 publication, Talking To Myself. Like Ms. Angelou, Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis, Ms. Bailey is remembered as an icon of entertainment and civil right achievements. Her contributions will long be remembered, her words every bit as relevant today as then. We need to continue to publicly acknowledge these irreplaceable people at every opportunity, to keep their goals and to remind all of what it took to reach them. Laurie, although belatedly here to this blog, I applaud your efforts in certainly doing this.