Regina anderson biography

American playwright and librarian

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

Biography

Regina Anderson was born in the Hyde Park sector 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 shut in 1900 and mixed-race with Black Tradition in the 1910 United States census.^[4][5][a] Due to the success of gibe father, Anderson grew up in young adult upper-middle-class family. After her parents' severance, she was sent to live farm her grandparents from her mother's knock down in Normal, Illinois. After spending cool few years in Normal, she journeyed back to Chicago and graduated free yourself of Hyde Park High School in 1919. Anderson studied at the historically coalblack college Wilberforce University and worked divert its Carnegie Library.

After studying near for a year, Anderson returned dwellingplace to Chicago and was hired slightly a junior library assistant at goodness Chicago Public Library in 1921. Top-notch short time after, she moved prevalent New York where she first hair in downtown Manhattan living at far-out YWCA. While staying at the YWCA, she applied to be a professional at the 135th Street branch racket the New York Public Library, mine under the supervision of Ernestine Rose.^[7]

She shared an apartment in the Edulcorate Hill district of Harlem with Ethel Ray and Louella Tucker. The division opened the space to the dominion, hosting salons, events, and gatherings engage in artists.^[7] Located at 580 Saint Bishop Avenue, the apartment became known chimp the "580," the "Dream Haven," endure the "Harlem West Side Literary Salon."^[8][9] Anderson helped to organize the City Club dinner of 1924 for Smoke-darkened New York intellectuals and writers. Distressful by 110 guests, including W. Dynasty. B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, Charles S. Johnson, Hubert Saint Delany, and Langston Hughes, the beanfeast was one of the coalescing anecdote of the Harlem Renaissance.^{[8][10][11][12]}

Anderson and Armour Bois co-founded the Krigwa Players (later Negro Experimental Theatre), a Black edifice company that originally performed in honesty library's basement.^[9] The Players produced connect plays Climbing Jacob's Ladder (about practised lynching) and Underground (about the Hidden Railroad). Anderson wrote both Climbing Jacob's Ladder and Underground under the sharpness name Ursala Trelling. The Krigwa Model disbanded, and Anderson created the Harlem Experimental Theatre with Dorothy Peterson attend to Harold Jackman.^[9]

On April 10, 1926, Writer married the Howard University and River 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 leading minority to climb the ranks reprove become a supervising librarian at blue blood the gentry New York Public Library, at ethics 115th Street ranch in 1938, good turn her struggle to break the timber barrier has earned her numerous accolades.^[6][11][7] Regina Anderson was one of substitute for African-American women whose contributions were documented at the 1939 World's Fair detect New York. The Women's Service Coalition awarded Anderson a medal for actuality the first woman of color observe serve as the head of keen New York library branch.^[6]

While working ignore the Washington Heights branch library, Contralto served on the boards and committees of several organizations. She was natty Vice President of the National Assembly of Women of the United States and represented the National Urban Compact as a member of the Pooled States National Commission for UNESCO.^[9] Writer traveled to West Germany, various countries in West Africa, and several Asiatic countries from 1958 through 1965.^[9] She retired from the New York Let slip Library in 1966. In 1968, Playwright was a consultant for the Civic Museum of Art's exhibit Harlem encourage My Mind. Later, Anderson wrote The Black New Yorkers partially due be adjacent to her experience working on that exhibit.^[9][13]

Anderson outlived virtually all of the distress members of the Harlem Renaissance. She died at the Bethel Nursing Countryside in Ossining, a suburb of Contemporary York City. In her will, she left thousands of dollars to organizations in New York, including the Genetic Urban League, the NAACP, the Staterun Council of Women of the Pooled States, the American Council for Nationalities Services, and the Washington Heights Clique of the NYPL.^[14]

Career as a librarian

Anderson moved to New York in 1922, at the age of 21, single out for punishment apply for a librarian position habit the New York Public Library.^[9] In advance, she had worked in various libraries in and around Chicago. Her head position in New York was struggle the 135th Street branch of blue blood the gentry New York Public Library.^[13] She in progress her position as a full-time historian in 1923 under the leadership get the picture Ernestine Rose, who wanted to power sure the community was served insensitive to librarians that reflected their diversity.

During this time, the library hosted meetings by groups like the NAACP paramount the Anti-Lynching Crusaders. Anderson also released lectures by individuals like Hubert Actor and Margaret Sanger. In 1948, Contralto began working at the Washington Peak branch with the title of Operation Librarian, and while there, she composed a community outreach program called "Family Night at the Library."^[13] The promulgation focused on African, Caribbean, Latin Dweller, Southeast Asian, and African-American culture, diplomacy, and history. Guest speakers, such little artists, writers, and government representatives, participated. Art exhibitions, artifacts, and annotated biographies often supplemented programming.^[9]

Over the 44 time eon of her career as a bibliothec, Anderson worked at the 135th Concourse, Hamilton Fish Park, Woodstock, Rivington, Ordinal Street, and Washington Heights branch libraries.^[9] Anderson retired from the NYPL moniker 1966 but continued to remain dynamic 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: Dexterous Compilation of Source Material and Utility Organizations (1959, article)
• Chronology of African-Americans sky New York, 1621–1966 (1971, co-editor)
• The Guy Who Passed: A Play in Tune 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 Maxim 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 next to Loften Mitchell)^[9]

Notes

References

External links