#Repost @offgridincolor • • • • • • Happy Black History Month!!! Everyday is Black history and I'm happy to have this month to publicly display that! . . Every day, this month, I'm going to drop some less known Black history knowledge for you. . . Meet Frederika “Fredi” Washington. "When Duke Ellington and his band toured the segregated South in the early 1930s, they encountered racism wherever they went. A gorgeous black performer also traveled with the band—Frederika “Fredi” Washington. Lithe and light-skinned, she was pale enough to “pass” as white in the color-obsessed South, and during the tour she took advantage of her skin color to slip into whites-only ice cream parlors and buy ice cream for the entire band. “N--- er lover!” whites screamed when they realized they’d been hoodwinked. . . Washington may have used her skin color to procure cool treats on the road, but she refused to use it for economic or social gain. During a time of harsh segregation and overwhelming bias against African-Americans, she embraced her heritage....Washington refused to hide behind her light skin. . . In 1937, Washington helped found what would become the Negro Actors Guild of America, a group that advocated for less stereotypical roles and better working conditions for black actors. She also became a drama critic, writing theatrical reviews for African-American newspapers, and served as a casting consultant for films and theatrical productions that concerned race. “Early in my career,” she told the Chicago Defender in 1945, “it was suggested that I might get further by passing as French or something exotic. But to pass, for economic or other advantages, would have meant that I swallowed, whole hog, the idea of Black inferiority.” . . Read more here (link also bio) https://www-history-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/fredi-washington-black-actress-hollywood-jim-crow-era?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.history.com%2Fnews%2Ffredi-washington-black-actress-hollywood #offgridincolor #farming #homesteading #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth2019 #blackhistory365 #bla https://www.instagram.com/p/B6maRtyFsZJ/?igshid=r6w1jxus4b4b
