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Fredi Washington was an American actress, activist, and writer who starred in Imitation of Life (1934) and other films. She was one of the first Black Americans to gain recognition for film and stage work in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Fredi Washington embraced her race at the height of Jim Crow.
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.
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. And while other actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age like Merle Oberon (who was Anglo Indian) and Rita Hayworth (who was Spanish American) hid their features as the price of admission to white Hollywood, Washington refused to hide behind her light skin.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Washington moved to Harlem along with her family during the Great Migration, when Black families fled the Jim Crow South in search of new opportunities in Northern cities. The daughter of a postal worker and a dancer, Washington had green eyes and light skin that belied the era’s common expectations of what an African American “looked like.”
Washington knew that regardless of her looks, the era’s construction of Black race as belonging to anyone who had even a drop of Black heritage meant she would always be considered African American by white audiences…unless she simply “passed” as white.
Racial “passing” allowed Black Americans to sidestep racism faced by Black people and claim the privilege of whiteness in public spaces. The practice, writes historian Robert Fikes, Jr., was “seen by many African Americans as a way of outwitting the system of oppression and making laughable fools of those who countenanced notions of white racial purity and supremacy.” But it also alienated people from others of their culture. A Black woman who passed might be considered white, but she ran the constant risk of losing her privilege once it was discovered she was really Black—and of being shunned by Black people once they learned she was claiming whiteness.
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Fredi Washington was a light-skinned Black performer who starred in Imitation of Life, a film that explored the theme of racial passing. She embraced her race and advocated for better roles and conditions for Black actors in Hollywood.
Fredi Washington was a pioneering African-American actress who refused to "pass" for white and starred in Imitation of Life (1934). Learn more about her life, career, and activism on IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
- January 1, 1
- Savannah, Georgia, USA
- January 1, 1
- Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Fredi Washington was a pioneering African-American actress who refused to "pass" for white and starred in Imitation of Life (1934). Learn more about her life, career, activism and quotes on IMDb.
- December 23, 1903
- June 28, 1994
7. Aug. 2022 · Her name was Fredi Washington and she descended on Hollywood with a burning mission: to redefine white America’s image of African American women. Born Fredricka Carolyn Washington in Savannah, Georgia, she was the daughter of a postal worker and former dancer and the eldest of nine children.
25. Apr. 2023 · A documentary about the black actress who played the Tragic Mulatto stereotype in Hollywood films. Learn how she challenged the racial boundaries and embraced her Black identity in the Civil Rights Movement.
- 8 Min.
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- Hannah D'Orso
12. Feb. 2007 · Fredi Washington was a pioneer of African American theater and film, starring in Imitation of Life and Black and Tan Fantasy. She also co-founded the Negro Actors Guild of America and worked as a journalist for People’s Voice.
