“How do people be if they don’t be from the struggle?”

What An Evening with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee makes me reflect on is the contemporary state of the movement today. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee exemplify what it means to be both an activist and an artist - Lovers and warriors. In their interview with the great Angela Davis, the power couple reflect on their values, memories and lessons from the civil rights movement.

The two would meet on the set of a play they both were starring in and from then the two would come to fall in love and join each other in a life of activism. The two would rub shoulders with the big names of Hollywood such as Paul Robeson, Marlon Brando etc and would fund raise for the union movement.

The two were targets of the Mccarthyist Red Scare and were made to stand trails as traitors for their unionist support and anti-colonial advocacy. The two refused to remain simply actors, but fought to be political agents. The two were parents who brought their children to the picket lines and demonstrations, because they sought to encultrate their children in the struggle for freedom.

With the help of filmmaker Spike Lee the two were featured within Do the Right Thing where they were introduced to another generation for the first time.

What Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee make me reflect on is, where is this type of celebrity activist today? Philanthropy has replaced activism. Throwing a few dollars willy-nilly here and there has taken the place of a centralized platform and goal. Money is given to the money laundering machine of the NGO industrial complex opposed to being given to Black organizations with grassroots support and institution building agendas. We have a lot to recover from and Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee’s legacy has made that evident when in comparison to the state of the movement today.