Married for fifty-seven years, actors, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were the epitome of Black love. Being in the acting game for just as long as they were married, they are the perfect examples of Hollywood legends. Being civil rights activists for just as long combined with their life’s accomplishments and compassion for others makes them true icons no doubt. But it’s their devoted roles as parents to their three children that we’re pretty sure they were most proud of. In fact, they even have a celebrity son who followed in their Hollywood footsteps. True Old Schoolers will remember him well…and for our ‘younger’ Old Schoolers,’ prepare to be entertained…
MEET THEIR SON
Their son’s name is Guy Davis. In case this guy probably looks familiar to some of you, it’s probably because he was one of the stars of the 1984 break dancing movie, Beat Street. Remember him from the movie? He played “Double K,” an aspiring DJ who fell in love with actress, Rae Dawn Chong’s character, “Tracey.”
By the way, if you’re not a big time blues fan, you probably just thought that the dude from Beat Street was just another fly-by-night celeb’ who didn’t do much after that movie, but that’s actually not true. In addition to being an actor, he’s also a successful blues artist/musician, with over 15 albums under his belt. He’s a self-taught blues guitarist and banjo player (he says he never had the patience to take formal lessons).
Aside from his lead role in Beat Street, Davis also played “Dr. Josh Hall” on One Life to Live from 1985 to 1986 and made his Broadway musical debut in 1991 in the Zora Neale Hurston/Langston Hughes collaboration Mulebone.
In 1993, he performed Off-Broadway as blues player, Robert Johnson in Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil. He received great reviews and became the 1993 winner of the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive Award.” He also still continues to combine his love of acting and music by appearing in various Off-Broadway stage plays and musicals, several of which he writes himself.
Probably one of Guy’s proudest recording projects is a title track he contributed to songs project titled I Will Be Your Friend: Songs and Activities for Young Peacemakers. The songs are combined together with a teacher’s aid kit to help teach diversity and understanding. It is all part of the national “Teaching Tolerance” campaign and continues to be distributed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and sent to every public school in the country to help combat hatred.
MEET ALL OF THEIR CHILDREN
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee had a total of three children, Hasna, Nora, and Guy, and it sounds like their constant teaching of self love and self respect did not fall on deaf eras. Ruby Dee stated at the age of 90, that “I’ve been walking picket lines since I could walk” and that is apparently something they’ve instilled in their kids since they were very young. In fact, below is a photo of Ossie, Ruby, and their children picketing and protesting against racial injustice and standing up for what they believe in, during a time when racial tension and segregation were on high in the early 1960’s…
One of the beautiful attributes that Ossie and Ruby had is that they were like social warriors who stood up for what they believed in, with their tireless dedication toward equal rights for all races. They were civil rights activists who were really close friends with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and they used their fame to do whatever they could to help bring awareness to the fact that African Americans are people who bleed and breathe the same as any other human being and deserve to be treated as such. Sadly, their teachings are still needed today.
Dr. Hasna (shown above on far left) is a gifted and professional musician and attorney. She’s also a seasoned district school administrator, author and public speaker.
I’m sure Ossie and Ruby left this world, feeling a great sense of pride about their offspring.
-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, old School news with a new point of view
