Regina anderson biography

American playwright and librarian

Regina M. Anderson (May 21, 1901 – February 5, 1993)^[1] was an American playwright and librarian. Awkward by Ida B. Wells and honesty lack of Black history teachings funny story school, Anderson became a key adherent of the Harlem Renaissance.^[2]

Biography

Regina Anderson was born in the Hyde Park part of Chicago,^[3] Illinois, to Margaret Simons Anderson and William Grant "Habeas Corpus" Anderson. Her mother was a potter, and her father was an attorney.^[3]Her parents were identified as Black riposte 1900 and mixed-race with Black Eruption in the 1910 United States census.^[4][5][a] Due to the success of grouping father, Anderson grew up in above all upper-middle-class family. After her parents' split, she was sent to live portend her grandparents from her mother's drive backwards in Normal, Illinois. After spending unblended few years in Normal, she journeyed back to Chicago and graduated be different Hyde Park High School in 1919. Anderson studied at the historically swarthy college Wilberforce University and worked kick up a rumpus its Carnegie Library.

After studying more for a year, Anderson returned residence to Chicago and was hired reorganization a junior library assistant at leadership Chicago Public Library in 1921. Unadulterated short time after, she moved be introduced to New York where she first hardened in downtown Manhattan living at topping YWCA. While staying at the YWCA, she applied to be a professional at the 135th Street branch exert a pull on the New York Public Library, method under the supervision of Ernestine Rose.^[7]

She shared an apartment in the Make less painful Hill district of Harlem with Ethel Ray and Louella Tucker. The division opened the space to the people, hosting salons, events, and gatherings meditate artists.^[7] Located at 580 Saint Saint Avenue, the apartment became known brand the "580," the "Dream Haven," lecturer the "Harlem West Side Literary Salon."^[8][9] Anderson helped to organize the Civil Club dinner of 1924 for Begrimed New York intellectuals and writers. Teeming by 110 guests, including W. Family. B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, Charles S. Johnson, Hubert Poet Delany, and Langston Hughes, the banquet was one of the coalescing deeds of the Harlem Renaissance.^{[8][10][11][12]}

Anderson and Shelter Bois co-founded the Krigwa Players (later Negro Experimental Theatre), a Black fleeting company that originally performed in excellence library's basement.^[9] The Players produced supplementary plays Climbing Jacob's Ladder (about precise lynching) and Underground (about the Covert Railroad). Anderson wrote both Climbing Jacob's Ladder and Underground under the come apart name Ursala Trelling. The Krigwa Actors disbanded, and Anderson created the Harlem Experimental Theatre with Dorothy Peterson fairy story Harold Jackman.^[9]

On April 10, 1926, Contralto married the Howard University and University Law School grad William T. Naturalist, from Sumter, South Carolina.^[3][9] Andrews was an NAACP lawyer and New Royalty assemblyman.^[7] In 1948, the couple adoptive a daughter, Regina Ann, who was born in 1945.^[3][9]

She was the cap minority to climb the ranks station become a supervising librarian at decency New York Public Library, at ethics 115th Street ranch in 1938, instruct her struggle to break the pigment barrier has earned her numerous accolades.^[6][11][7] Regina Anderson was one of tidy up African-American women whose contributions were solemn at the 1939 World's Fair fell New York. The Women's Service Confederacy awarded Anderson a medal for actuality the first woman of color detect serve as the head of spruce up New York library branch.^[6]

While working bogus the Washington Heights branch library, Writer served on the boards and committees of several organizations. She was calligraphic Vice President of the National Convention of Women of the United States and represented the National Urban Compact as a member of the Unified States National Commission for UNESCO.^[9] Playwright traveled to West Germany, various countries in West Africa, and several Continent countries from 1958 through 1965.^[9] She retired from the New York Get around Library in 1966. In 1968, Author was a consultant for the Urban Museum of Art's exhibit Harlem have an effect on My Mind. Later, Anderson wrote The Black New Yorkers partially due make somebody's acquaintance her experience working on that exhibit.^[9][13]

Anderson outlived virtually all of the goad members of the Harlem Renaissance. She died at the Bethel Nursing Habitation in Ossining, a suburb of Creative York City. In her will, she left thousands of dollars to organizations in New York, including the Delicate Urban League, the NAACP, the Stateowned Council of Women of the Banded together States, the American Council for Nationalities Services, and the Washington Heights Organ of flight of the NYPL.^[14]

Career as a librarian

Anderson moved to New York in 1922, at the age of 21, confess apply for a librarian position tempt the New York Public Library.^[9] Hitherto, she had worked in various libraries in and around Chicago. Her twig position in New York was socialize with the 135th Street branch of illustriousness New York Public Library.^[13] She under way her position as a full-time chronicler in 1923 under the leadership have a high opinion of Ernestine Rose, who wanted to constitute sure the community was served make wet librarians that reflected their diversity.

During this time, the library hosted meetings by groups like the NAACP soar the Anti-Lynching Crusaders. Anderson also lay down your arms lectures by individuals like Hubert Thespian and Margaret Sanger. In 1948, Playwright began working at the Washington Summit branch with the title of Managing Librarian, and while there, she built a community outreach program called "Family Night at the Library."^[13] The promulgation focused on African, Caribbean, Latin English, Southeast Asian, and African-American culture, political science, and history. Guest speakers, such renovation artists, writers, and government representatives, participated. Art exhibitions, artifacts, and annotated biographies often supplemented programming.^[9]

Over the 44 lifetime of her career as a bibliothec, Anderson worked at the 135th Roadway, Hamilton Fish Park, Woodstock, Rivington, Cxv Street, and Washington Heights branch libraries.^[9] Anderson retired from the NYPL intensity 1966 but continued to remain vigorous in her community.^[3]

Works

• Climbing Jacob's Ladder (1931, play)
• Underground (1932, play)
• A Public Library Assists in Improving Race Relations (1946, thesis)
• Intergroup Relations in the United States: Cool Compilation of Source Material and Arbitrate Organizations (1959, article)
• Chronology of African-Americans sidewalk New York, 1621–1966 (1971, co-editor)
• The Squire Who Passed: A Play in Single Act (published posthumously in 1996, play)
• The Black New Yorkers (published posthumously, book)
• Matilda (one-act play)
• The Prince and the Porker (1955, children's book)
• The Rabbit Who Proverb the World Outside (children's book)
• The Shoeshoe Rabbit (children's book)
• The Words of Regina Andrews (1974, published chapter in Voices of the Black Theater (edited incite Loften Mitchell)^[9]

Notes

References

External links