Fredi Washington

Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington (December 23, 1903 – June 28, 1994) was an American stage and film actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. Washington was of African American descent. She was one of the first Black Americans to gain recognition for film and stage work in the 1920s and 1930s. Washington was active in the Harlem Renaissance (1920s–1930s). Her best- known film role was as Peola in Imitation of Life (1934). She plays a young light-skinned Black woman who decides to pass as white. Her last film role was in One Mile from Heaven (1937). After that she left Hollywood and returned to New York to work in theatre and civil rights activism.