[col. writ. 6/12/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Her name was Ruby Dee (‘D’) – for Davis), and though she made her transition into the realm of the ancestors, she is available for all to see in all her beauty, dignity, charm and poise, for a long and distinguished career on stage, screen and television.
Despite such a long and legendary career as an actress, one would be hard-pressed to find a role where she portrayed anything less than the best of Black people.
Her best self shone, no matter the role, no matter the script.
Like her late husband, the Master actor, Ossie Davis, their work was a theater of Black dignity, Black family and Black Love.
My wife, Wadiya Jamal, loved them both. When I asked her why, she said, “I love how they love.”
They found ways to practice their chosen craft, but never sold their souls to the cameraman or the director.
Ruby Dee was also a lifelong activist, who supported Malcolm X, the Black Freedom Movement and – yes- yours truly.
She was a published poet, and her 1999 [orig. 1987] book, My One Good Nerve, was insightful, deep, funny and witty.
In her poem on Black youth, “The Mighty Gents”, she wrote:
Fulfillment dreams, Spawned by unintelligible economies,
By the gangster class, by the religious hems and haws
By the respectable corrupt, by ineffectual classroom rituals, by sick and tired middle class
By daddies who didn’t know and, by names couldn’t stop them
Dreams that guarantee only early Rigor mortis
Clang spastically in heads, Messed up, too, by ladyfingers
Cowboy flicks with gunslingers, Taming frontiers, slaves, Indians
God, anything [pp.55-56]
Ruby Dee, poet; human rights activist, civil rights activist; Black freedom activist, award-winning actress.
My favorite film of her: I loved them all – from “St. Louis Blues” to “The Stand”; from when she was a fresh faced church girl, to the wizened, God-filled mother figure in Stephen King’s science fiction epic, she radiated intelligence, passion, and unique style.
Ruby Dee, at 91 summers sweetened by her presence.
–© ‘14maj