African-American actress and activist Henrietta Vinton Davis born in Baltimore, Maryland
Henrietta Vinton Davis was born in Baltimore, educated in Washington DC, and began her working life as a teacher. After a time as the first African-American woman employed at the Office of the Recorder of Deeds, she then developed at sterling career on the stage with dramatic recitations that gave her a national reputation. Much of her later life was taken up with work in the African Redemption Movement of Marcus Garvey. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Errol Hill, "Henrietta Vinton Davis: Shakespearean Actress," in Helen Krich Chinoy (ed.), Women in American Theater (New York: Crown Publishers, 1981), 83-89