North San Diego County Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma

North San Diego County Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Heritage and Archives Presentation October 14, 2017 Patricia P Watson, Chair

OCTOBER’S HERITAGE MOMENT PAYS TRIBUTE TO: HONORARY SOROR RUBY DEE

Early Life • Soror Ruby Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was the daughter of Gladys and Marshall Wallace, a cook, waiter and porter. • Dee was raised in Harlem, New York. She attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with a degree in Romance languages in 1945.

Career Crossed all Major Forms of Media Ruby Dee joined the American Negro Theater as an apprentice, working with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Hilda Simms. She made several appearances on Broadway. Her first onscreen role was in That Man of Mine in 1946. She received national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. In 1965, Dee performed in lead roles at the American Shakespeare Festival as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear, becoming the first black actress to portray a lead role in the festival. Her career in acting crossed all major forms of media over a span of eight decades, including the film, Edge of the City. She played both roles opposite Poitier

A Raisin in the Sun • Ruby Dee was an actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and civil rights activist. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), and Do the Right Thing (1989).

Roots: The Next Generations • During the 1960 s, Dee appeared in such politically charged films as Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers. In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place. She appeared as Cora Sanders, a Marxist college professor, in the Season 1/Episode 14 of Police Woman, entitled “Target Black" which aired on Friday night, January 3, 1975. The character of Cora Sanders was obviously, but loosely, influenced by the real-life Angela Y. Davis. She appeared in one episode of The Golden Girls' sixth season. She played Queen Haley in Roots: The Next Generations, a 1979 miniseries.

American Gangster, 2007 • Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), and Do the Right Thing (1989). • For her performance as Mahalee Lucas in American Gangster (2007), she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role. • She was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner. She was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient. Ruby Dee as Mrs Lucas

Ossie Ruby Wallace married blues singer Frankie Dee Brown in 1941, and began using his middle name as her stage name. The couple divorced in 1945. Three years later she married actor Ossie Davis, whom she met while costarring in Robert Ardrey's 1946 Broadway play Jeb. Together they had three children: son, blues musician Guy Davis, and two daughters, Nora Day and Hasna Muhammad. Dee was a breast cancer survivor of more than three decades.

Served as emcee for the March on Washington.

Delta Sigma Theta Ruby Dee was an Honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. “She was instrumental in teaching Delta Sigma Theta how to use the arts to tell our ‘her’-story, which in turn, empowered our communities and women around the world. ” She also served as Honorary Chair and a member of several artistic committees and commissions within the Sorority. “Soror Dee was gracious and humble. She genuinely appreciated the bond of sisterhood to the extent that she may not have realized how much of a role model she actually was to the masses. To display such power as an actress and activist in the 1960 s showed us that if she could do it all, then we could do it all, ”. Soror Dee was also a contributor on the album “Roses and Revolutions” – a private production of DST Telecommunications, Inc. in 1975 – containing a 2 record, 4 sided album featuring Delta artists in poetry and song.

Did You Know…… • At a 1969 film festival in Moscow, Ruby told producer David Wolper about a friend’s thenunfinished manuscript, a story tracing his family’s genealogy all the way back to Africa. Nine years later, Wolper brought that story — Alex Haley’s Roots — to television. • Ruby received an Emmy nomination for her role as Queen Haley in Roots: The Next Generations, the sequel to this miniseries.

Soror Dee used her fame to bring attention to causes that she believed in. She picketed Broadway theaters that did not employ African American actors and spoke out against film crews that discriminated in their hiring. She was an active member of the CORE, SNCC, SCLC, and the NAACP. Ruby Dee exemplified the finest qualities of a woman of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Fidelity • Fidelity is the steadfast devotion and faithful commitment we give to purposes larger than ourselves and a disciplined devotion which involves us in those experiences that are the very essence of an organization. Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than Fidelity. In the name of distinguished Honorary Members, faithful in their pursuit of excellence in the many fields of endeavor they represent we salute Our Soror, Ruby Dee.

References Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. www. deltasigmatheta. org Giddings, P. (1988) In Search of Sisterhood. Delta Sigma Theta and the Black Sorority Movement Wikipedia. Ruby Dee