Pictured above is the actress Fredi Washington (1903 – 1994), a talented fair skinned African-American woman who quit Hollywood in 1937 because the producers asked that she deny her African heritage. No doubt she read the attached article with some degree of scorn – but could no doubt understand their reasoning. To read the attached article from 1949 is to understand how deeply the deck was stacked against the African-American community in so many different ways. As soon as these women admitted to being black it would all go spiraling out of control.
Click here to read about the social differences between darker skinned and lighter skinned black people.
