[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 92 (Friday, June 13, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO RUBY DEE LEGENDARY STAR OF STAGE AND SCREEN, CIVIL RIGHTS 
     ACTIVIST, AND TRAILBLAZER WHO OPENED DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR 
                   GENERATIONS OF PERFORMING ARTISTS

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 13, 2014

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute and remember the 
great Ruby Dee, one of the most talented and influential actresses in 
American history and a committed activist for social and economic 
justice for more than 60 years.
  Ruby Dee passed away peacefully in her New Rochelle, New York home on 
June 11, 2014. She was 91 years old.
  Born Ruby Ann Wallace in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, Ruby Dee moved to 
New York's Harlem as a small child where she was raised by her father, 
Marshall Wallace, and his wife, Amelia, a schoolteacher and stickler 
for elocution and the person who introduced Ruby Dee to poetry, music 
and dance.
  It was in her Harlem school where Ruby Dee first read a passage from 
a play for her class mates and was met with applause, sparking her 
passion for acting.
  After graduating from Hunter College in 1945, she embarked upon a 
truly remarkable stage and screen career, one that lasted nearly 70 
years. She was a member of the American Negro Theatre where she acted 
alongside other legends such as Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and 
Hilda Simms.
  In 1946, Ruby Dee appeared in her first movie, a musical called 
``That Man of Mine.'' She went on to star in several acclaimed films 
including ``The Jackie Robinson Story,'' ``The Incident,'' ``Purlie 
Victorious,'' ``Do the Right Thing,'' and ``American Gangster,'' for 
which she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, 
the second oldest person ever to be nominated.
  Ruby Dee is perhaps best known for extraordinary portrayals of Ruth 
Younger in the stage and screen productions of Lorraine Hansberry's 
timeless classic, ``A Raisin in the Sun,'' for which she received the 
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  Playing the wife of the main character, Walter Lee Younger (played by 
Sidney Poitier), Ruby Dee's Ruth Younger was, as the New York Times put 
it: ``a character with far too much on her plate: an overcrowded home, 
a troubled husband, a young son, an overbearing mother-in-law, a 
wearying job and an unwanted pregnancy, not to mention the shared 
burden of black people everywhere in a society skewed against them.''
  Over her illustrious 70 year career, Ruby Dee was the recipient of 
numerous honors and awards, including the Emmy, the Grammy, the Obie, 
the Screen Actors Guild, and the Drama Desk Awards.
  In 1995 President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Arts and 
in 2008 she received the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor bestowed by 
the NAACP. That same year she also received the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-
Kill Medal in recognition for her active engagement and ``personal 
presence at pivotal moments in the tumultuous history of American civil 
rights.''
  In 1946, Ruby Dee joined the cast of the Broadway-bound play, 
``Jeb,'' where she met Ossie Davis, the play's lead character, and the 
man who would become her husband and soul mate in 1948.
  Over the next 59 years Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis performed together on 
stage and screen numerous times and were united in their protests 
against injustice, whether it was speaking out in the 1950s against the 
executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; McCarthyism; or the 
revocation of Paul Robeson's passport.
  They protested the Vietnam War and marched for civil rights, voting 
rights, women's rights, environmental justice, and against South 
African apartheid. In 1963, at the March on Washington, the couple 
served as the masters of ceremonies at Washington Monument 
entertainment event preceding the march to the Lincoln Memorial.
  Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis counted among their close friends both the 
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X; Presidents Carter, 
Clinton, Obama; and Nelson Mandela.
  Throughout her life, the husky-voiced Ruby Dee was a profile in 
courage. She bravely stood up for her beliefs and spoke truth to power 
when many did not out of fear that association with controversial 
causes would have an adverse effect on their careers.
  But because of her courage and steadfastness, the doors of 
opportunity would later be opened to future generations of performing 
artists of all races, creeds, and backgrounds.
  It truly can be said that Ruby Dee was an inspiration for African-
American performers and women around the world.
  Mr. Speaker, Ruby Dee lived a long, fulfilling, storied and 
consequential life. She made her mark in the world. More important, she 
made a difference in the lives of untold numbers of girls aspiring to 
realize their dreams.
  I hope that Ruby Dee's family and loved ones are comforted by the 
fact that so many people all around the world are mourning with them at 
this difficult time.
  So today one of our nation's greatest actress has taken her final bow 
and the curtain has come down on the extraordinary passion play that is 
and was the life of the legendary, talented, and supremely beautiful 
Ruby Dee.
  Her next play will be in Heaven, accompanied by a chorus of angels.