Canada Lee: Actor, Trailblazer, Activist

In celebration of our exhibition, The 75th Anniversary of the American Negro Theatre, Canada Lee, who hosted the groundbreaking  New World A-Coming radio program, is remembered by Dr. Keith Hunter, Co-Founder of Harlem Cultural Archives:

Harlem-raised Canada Lee, who the New York Times once called “the greatest Negro actor of his day” has been almost totally forgotten in recent history. After dropping out of eighth grade to pursue a life as a jockey, Lee became disenchanted with his life so he took up professional boxing. But he was forced to retire from boxing due to a devastating injury that left him blind in one eye.

Lee began acting when his friend suggested he do a reading, and soon found himself protecting a young maverick director named Orson Welles, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Welles would later become an important director and advocate for the American Negro Theatre (ANT) and black performers. Lee was passionate about justice for those who had been marginalized, having seen firsthand the many lives challenged by the Great Depression. Early in his acting career, he garnered the role of Bigger Thomas in the stage performance of Richard Wright’s Native Son. He performed in front of thousands in theaters across the country, which he frequently had to pressure to reject segregated seating. This role and the play’s critique of black life had a profound impact on his future career.

The actor portrayed a variety of characters and was a vehement opponent of demeaning roles for African-American actors and actresses. Lee brought this resolve to every theater and film presentation of which he was a part. Interestingly, he was also the first African-American actor to perform in whiteface while doing Shakespeare. Even when forced to play traditionally stereotypical roles, critics always noted the respect he would bring to the role.

A man of immense love and talent, Lee was instrumental to many performers from the American Negro Theatre, who he helped become successful professional actors. Always outspoken and generous in his support of the downtrodden, he and fellow ANT alum Sidney Poitier snuck into Apartheid South Africa in the late 1940s as indentured servants in order to film the motion picture, Cry the Beloved Country. Following his exposure to the daily trauma of African life, he became even more critical of the world’s injustices and spoke out on the radio and in other public appearances.

As Lee became more of an activist, the government witch hunt that would define the McCarthy era, threatened to destroy his life and that of many performers and truth-seekers in the country including close friends Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois. While Lee was never a member of the communist party, many people like himself who spoke truth were targeted for their critique of American injustice. It was believed that the leaders of America were fearful that African Americans would embrace communism as an alternative to the daily injustices they faced in this country. Lee had actively campaigned for the United States to defeat Hitler in World War ll, but that same congress eventually took away his livelihood and his passport.

Today the legacy of Canada Lee lives on in the work of American Negro Theatre alumni like Harry Belafonte, who continues to advocate for honorable portrayals of black life in theater and in film.