(Poet Langston Hughes visits a church basement where a dra...)
Poet Langston Hughes visits a church basement where a drama group is rehearsing one of his plays, and uses the actors to recreate scenes from his early life.
Life Lit by Some Large Vision: Selected Speeches and Writings
(Ossie Davis, the celebrated civil rights activist, actor,...)
Ossie Davis, the celebrated civil rights activist, actor, writer, and director, is remembered for a film, television, and stage career of more than half a century. His awards include an Emmy Award, an NAACP Image Award for his work in the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, and a Kennedy Center Honor. The last two honors, like so many of his accomplishments, were shared with his wife and partner (in life and in work), Ruby Dee. Ossie Davis is also revered for his lifelong commitment to those social and political causes about which he was so passionate. Of all the gifts he possessed, perhaps none was greater than his ability to articulate the important issues of the day. He used his brilliant mind and his oratory skills to give voice to his concerns as a black man, an American, and a human being in the world, as well as to the individuals and communities whose concerns he made his own. This monumental book brings together many of the moving speeches, essays, and other writings as an ultimate gift to posterity. Life Lit by Some Large Vision includes some humor, some history, and some surprises: moving tributes to such luminaries as Malcolm X and Louis Armstrong; thought-provoking speeches on the treachery of the English language and the challenge of breaking through the "niggerization" process; letters to friends and fellow thinkers; essays that span decades of social thought and revolutionary positions; and the closing monologue from his groundbreaking 1961 play, Purlie Victorious. The unforgettable sound of Ossie Davis's voice is well documented in his work on film and television, but the words on these pages offer his heart and mind, and will be the next best thing to witnessing him speak in person. Ruby Dee contributes a foreword to the collection and introductory notes to the individual pieces, many of which were written and delivered with her at his
(Joining the local efforts for Civil Rights in their 1960s...)
Joining the local efforts for Civil Rights in their 1960s Deep South community, fourteen-year-old Ike Stone and his companions are proud of their part in the movement until two of their friends are killed in a racial bombing incident. Reprint.
Ossie Davis was a leading African American playwright, actor, director, and television and movie star.
Background
Raiford Chatman Davis was born in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia, on December 18, 1917. He was a son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura (née Cooper; July 9, 1898 – June 6, 2004). He inadvertently became known as "Ossie" when his birth certificate was being filed and his mother's pronunciation of his name as "R. C. Davis" was misheard by the courthouse clerk in Clinch County.
Education
Following the wishes of his parents, he attended Howard University but dropped out in 1939 to fulfill his desire for an acting career in New York; he later attended Columbia University School of General Studies.
Career
He joined an acting group in Harlem in New York City and took part in the American Negro Theater, founded there in 1940.
Davis made his debut in the play Joy Exceeding Glory (1941). During Army service in World War II he wrote and produced shows. While playing his first Broadway role in Jeb (1946), he met actress Ruby Dee, and they were married two years later.
Davis's first movie role was in No Way Out (1950). This was followed by Broadway performances in No Time for Sergeants, Raisin in the Sun, and Jamaica. Other movie roles included The Cardinal, Shock Treatment, Slaves, and, in 1989, Do the Right Thing. An important achievement was his pioneer work as an African American actor in television, appearing in dramas and on such regular series as The Defenders and The Nurses. He also wrote television scripts.
Equally talented, Davis and Ruby Dee played together many times on the stage, in television, cabaret, and movies. They starred in Davis's own play Purlie Victorious (1961) and in the movie based on it, Gone Are the Days. Purlie Victorious was published and also reprinted in anthologies. Davis coauthored the musical version of this hilarious satire, Purlie (1970), which enjoyed great success during its Broadway run.
In the late 1960s Davis pioneered in Hollywood as a African American film director with Cotton Comes to Harlem, among other films. With Ruby Dee he appeared on stage and television, reading the poetry of famous African Americans, and he made recordings of African American literature. Perhaps one of his most memorable endeavors was his eulogy on Malcolm X in 1965, when he called the slain leader "Our Shining Black Prince. " Davis frequently lectured and read at universities and schools.
Davis's published essays include "The Wonderful World of Law and Order, " "The Flight from Broadway, " and "Plays of Insight Are Needed to Make the Stage Vital in Our Lives. " He also wrote the play Last Dance for Sybil and the musical adaptation of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson.
In his eighth decade, Davis remained very active, mostly in television, with a three-year run on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) program With Ossie and Ruby as well as the popular series Evening Shade. He also helped to usher in a new generation of African American film directors, spearheaded by Spike Lee. Davis even performed in three of Lee's films. As an author, fiction has proven to be fertile ground for Davis; his novel Just Like Martin, a paean to the civil rights movement, was published in 1992.
Davis had a deep love for his people and his heritage. He was an example of African American identity and pride, and he devoted much time and talent to the civil rights movement in America. He received a number of awards, including the Mississippi Democratic Party Citation, the Howard University Alumni Achievement Award in dramatics, and the Frederick A. Douglass Award (with Ruby Dee) from the New York Urban League. The Davises had three children and made their home in New Rochelle, New York.
Quotations:
"Struggle is strengthening. Battling with evil gives us the power to battle evil even more. "
"We can't float through life. We can't be incidental or accidental. We must fix our gaze on a guiding star as soon as one comes upon the horizon and once we have attached ourselves to that star we must keep our eyes on it and our hands upon the plow. It is the consistency of the pursuit of the highest possible vision that you can find in front of you that gives you the constancy, that gives you the encouragement, that gives you the way to understand where you are and why it's important for you to do what you can do. "
"There is no secret to a long marriage - it's hard work. .. It's serious business, and certainly not for cowards. "
"I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness. "
"It is necessary to stay on the march, to be on the journey, to work for peace wherever we are at all times, because the liberty we cherish, which we would share with the world, demands eternal vigilance. "
"It was a lifetime occupation that kept us too busy to stop and ask if we were happy or not. "
"Any form of art is a form of power. "
"If we can reach in wih the art and touch the imagination of the child, no matter who, we have affected that child. "
Membership
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Connections
In 1948, Davis married actress Ruby Dee, whom he had met on the set of Robert Ardrey's 1946 play Jeb. In their joint autobiography With Ossie and Ruby, they described their decision to have an open marriage, later changing their minds. In the mid-1960s they moved to the New York suburb of New Rochelle, where they remained ever after. Their son Guy Davis is a blues musician and former actor, who appeared in the film Beat Street (1984) and the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. Their daughters are Nora Davis Day and Hasna Muhammad.