In Praise of Black Women...
Where Have All My Sisters Gone?
Hollywood, Broadway, and the Disappearance of the Black DIVA!!!
By Franz Jones

There was a time, and it does seem so long ago, that when I went to the movies or turned on the television, I more often than not saw a Black female star performing. This carried over to Black female leads in plays and musicals as well – if I was lucky enough to see one – because for many years attending live theatre in Washington, DC, which is where I grew up, was an almost unheard of luxury.   The one legitimate theatrical house for tours and major Broadway style productions, The National Theatre, was closed for an extended time due to the owners’ reluctance to integrate their audience, and hence was boycotted by the members of Actors Equity.  

It seemed to me at that time that Black females worked far more than Black males and that these venues provided them with greater opportunity to be seen and heard.   I can remember seeing such stars as Pearl Bailey, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Katherine Dunham, and to a lesser extent, Ruby Dee, Maidie Norman, Gail Fisher, Cicely Tyson, and Diana Sands, on some form of popular media enough to know even as a child that they were somehow more special than a lot of other African American women at that time.

Dorothy Dandridge had appeared in “Carmen Jones” and was the first Black woman I can ever remember seeing on the cover of Life magazine, which like Ebony had a permanent place on our family’s living room coffee table every month.

Cicely Tyson was a regular on a TV show called “East Side, West Side” in the early sixties with George C. Scott.   She was also the first Black woman I saw wearing natural hair in public that was not plaited or braided, but was a short Afro.  (I was told she had to be pure African because no self-respecting “colored” woman would wear nappy hair in public!  Ha!  Ha!)

Diahann Carroll was of course “Julia.”  Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, and later Eartha Kitt and Nancy Wilson, often played guest starring parts in regular series television.   Every week on the old “Ed Sullivan Show,” acts like Barbara McNair, Ms. Carroll, Ms. Bailey, Ms. Kitt, and later The Original Supremes would often appear to perform either their latest hits or a medley of standards showing off their versatility.

On Broadway, even though I didn’t get to see them, I was aware that Lena Horne had appeared in a show called “Jamaica,” Diahann Carroll in “No Strings,” Pearl Bailey in “Hello Dolly” (which played the reopened National Theatre in my hometown of Washington, DC, in the late 60s), and Leslie Uggams in “Hallelujah Baby.”   My parents did see “No Strings,” and I treasured the program given to me for many years.

Far more than Black men at that time, African American women seemed to have an established place in American show business.

WHAT HAPPENED?   WHERE DID THEY GO?   WHY?

In the 1970s the “blaxploitation” period arose when Hollywood studios, many of them facing bankruptcy and losing more ground to television, came upon the unique idea of repackaging old scripts and devices and selling them to the Black audience. The majority of these films were action movies in which a virile Black hero overcame “The Man” to make his “hood” safe from drugs, prostitution, and gun-running among other rackets.  Most times (with the great exceptions of the AWESOME Pam Grier and the LOVELY Tamara Dobson), Black women’s roles in these films were secondary as a romantic/sexual interest for the male lead, a “bad” woman who needed to be brought back to herself, or a righteous sister with fist held high, they were simply there for the children and old folks who needed to be helped away from the action.   When these films went away, mostly by the early 80s, it seems so did a lot of the heretofore seen and well known Black actresses.

You had to look hard to find a Judy Pace (one of the most absolutely gorgeous dark-skinned women EVER to appear on-screen! I digress...), Gail Fisher (who won a couple of Emmys for her fabulous secretary Peggy Fair on “Mannix”), Vonetta McGee, Lonette McKee, Rosalind Cash, or Gloria Hendry anywhere on the small or large screen.  True, a lot of Black male actors disappeared as well, but to my mind the paucity of roles for Black actresses has remained since that time.

Throughout the last 30 years, the occasions where African American actresses had major roles were very few and far between.  Yes, there is “The Color Purple,” “Waiting to Exhale,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” “Dreamgirls,” “Set It Off,” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”  Did I leave any out?  I’m sure a couple, but these are the major projects involving Black women produced in the last 20-25 years.  As you can see it’s not a lot.  Yes, there are also the latter day films made by the hip hoppers gone Hollywood, but do we really want to count those as something major for a hardworking Black woman in today’s Hollywood?  Yes, it is work; yes, it does pay.   But I’d be willing to bet that a lot of the women I’ve mentioned (and those of whom I’ve yet to speak) wouldn’t count those exactly as career highlights.

Think of Halle Berry, the first African American actress to win an Oscar  as Best Actress in 2001 for “Monster’s Ball.”  Of course, we know that the Divine Miss Hattie McDaniel was the first to win in the Supporting Actress category for “Gone With The Wind” in 1939, followed by Whoopi Goldberg with “Ghost” in 1990, and up to the most recent two, Jennifer Hudson in 2006 (“Dreamgirls”) and Mo’Nique in 2009 (“ Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire ”), but for the main event Halle was the first.  Now, think of some roles Ms. Berry has played since winning that award.  Let’s see, there’s “Catwoman,” the James Bond thing, uh, “Die Another Day,” Gothika,” “Things We Lost in the Fire,” and the “X-Men” films.  She hasn’t really had another film that even comes close to her award-winning performance in “Monster’s Ball,” and let’s face it, THAT film was NOT so easy to take!

Vivica A. Fox experienced a career high point after being cast in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1.”  Since that time she has done a couple of reality shows, a failed hospital show on CBS, numerous guest spots on TV, and the sequel to “Two Can Play That Game,” which was “Three Can Play That Game.”  Don’t get me wrong the sister works, but has she had the kind of challenges her talent deserves?

Angela Bassett, nominated for an Academy Award for playing Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” did an amazing performance and transformation.  The last time I saw her in a leading role was in Tyler Perry’s Madea sequel, “Meet the Browns.”

Then there’s Debbie Morgan, who gave what might have been one of the most exquisite performances given by any actress in the last 20 years – and that was in “Eve’s Bayou.”   A performer of extraordinary gifts who has spent the majority of her career on the soap opera, “All My Children,” this seminal performance was barely recognized outside of a few critics and audience members including yours truly.   Because this was a Black-directed film and not a major studio release, it was completely overlooked during the 1997 awards season, and Ms. Morgan was not held up to the pinnacle she so rightly deserves.

Okay, the point here is, Black actresses often have to make a meal out of leftovers and crackers and cheese while Caucasian actresses are (some say arguably) feasting on meaty roles in ALL media!   The Meryls, the Julias, the Camerons, the Janes, and the Juliannes not only get to appear in major movies and TV roles with all the A-list actors of the day, but in some cases those actors might also be Black!  What’s a sister to do?  Who’s going to give her a break?  If she can’t be with Denzel, Sam, Eddie, or Jaime, then what chance has she with Tommy, Matt, Harrison, George, or Nick?

And then let’s lay another layer on her dilemma.  If nature made her a darker-skinned woman, then she REALLY seems to have limited chances!  She rarely appears in music videos, the hip hopper won’t use her except to play their mother or the evil bitch of a baby mama (or the even more evil best friend of the heroine).  On television she can be a crack-addicted mother, the brunt of some comic’s joke, the caring surrogate mother to lost Caucasian children, or again a best friend or an evil sister/mother in law.

Things are bad for a Black actress when she can’t be considered for mainstream film and TV projects.  But to me it seems somehow worse when your own people marginalize you in the same way.

I haven’t really talked about Broadway because frankly when it comes to this issue there is even less to say.

In my research, I was amazed to discover that Phylicia Rashad was the FIRST Black actress to win a Tony Award  for Best Actress in a play – in 2004!  After about 60 years of awards and the first Tony to a Black woman for Best Actress was in 2004?  Viola Davis won this year for the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences,” six years later!  The majority of African American female Tony winners were in the musical categories, and those that did win for plays were for supporting or featured performances, interestingly Mary Alice won a Tony in 1987 for originating the role that provided Viola Davis with her Best Actress win!  Mary Alice was the ONLY leading actress in that play, yet she was categorized as a “supporting actress” and Viola wasn’t?  Hmmmmm.

Right now there are two major shows on Broadway featuring a good number of Black performers, “ Memphis” and “Fela.”  In both cases the actresses were nominated for a Tony – Montego Glover for Best Actress in a musical and the sensational Lillias White for “Fela” as Best featured Actress in a musical.  Neither of these talented ladies won I am sad to say.  And when these shows close so will the chances for other Black actresses to have parts available on “The Great White Way.”

Isn’t it time to look past color when casting roles for women?  Don’t we share enough history now that when a woman’s story is told the face on the teller shouldn’t really matter?  Too much great talent is going to waste and truthfully it saddens me.

I’m just sayin’….