Also American

Person · 1922–2014

Ruby Dee

The pioneering actress and civil-rights activist of stage and screen.

A pioneer of [[black-stage]] and activism.

Ruby Dee starred in "A Raisin in the Sun" and decades of film and theater while, with husband Ossie Davis, serving on the front lines of the freedom movement.

Black Theatre & Dance

On the timeline

  1. March 11, 1959
    A Raisin in the Sun Opens on Broadway

    Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway with a Black director (Lloyd Richards) and predominantly Black cast, becoming the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway. Hansberry, at 29, became the youngest American and first Black playwright to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

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