Donzaleigh Abernathy | |
|---|---|
 Abernathy speaking at the Virginia Military Institute in 2003 | |
| Born | August 5, 1957 (age 67) Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Emerson College |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, author, civil rights activist |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Parent(s) | Ralph Abernathy Juanita Abernathy |
Donzaleigh Abernathy (born August 5, 1957) is an American actress, author and civil rights activist. [1] [2] [3]
Abernathy’s mother was pregnant with her when her parents’ home was bombed in the pre-dawn hours of January 10, 1957 after the successful close of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Abernathy was born in the segregated St. Jude’s Hospital Montgomery, Alabama and lived there through the “Freedom Riders” movement. In 1962, at the request of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she grew up. There, her father, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. continued his work co-leading the Civil Rights Movement with Dr. King. In 1965, after participating in “The Selma to Montgomery March for the Right To Vote,” the Abernathy children, along with the King children integrated Spring Street Elementary School and began mass integration of public schools in the South. Abernathy briefly attended the Northside High School for the Performing Arts, before attending and graduating from George School, a Quaker Prep School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. [4]
Her father was Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, a co-founder and co-leader of the American civil rights movement, and her mother was the life long civil rights activist Juanita Jones Abernathy. [5] She, her sister Juandalynn and brother Ralph David III joined their parents on all the major civil rights marches and witnessed first-hand many significant events of the Civil Rights movement. [6] Her family was very close to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a prominent leader of the Civil Rights movement. The Abernathy and King children went to school together, performed extracurricular activities together, spent Saturday and Sunday dinners together, as well as spent vacations and holidays together. According to Ms. Abernathy herself, children from both families would hold performances for their parents and their childhood acting teacher Mr. Walter Roberts, the father of movie stars Julia Roberts and Eric Roberts, on these occasions with Yolanda King, one of King's daughters, acting as the director and Dr. King filming their performances. Abernathy has stated "that's really when [she] started acting." [7] She is married to actor/producer Dar Dixon. [2]
After graduating from Emerson College in Boston, Abernathy moved to New York. She landed her first job after auditioning for a role with the Off Off Broadway production and worked for the Production Designer Eugene Lee and Costume Designer Franne Lee of “Saturday Night Live.” She played Lady in Orange in the Alliance Theater’s Southeastern Equity Tour of “For Colored Girls” and Iris in the Alliance Theater’s “Antony and Cleopatra“ with Jane Alexander and Ed Moore. [7] Since then, Ms. Abernathy has played roles in many movies and television movies, such as Mrs. Don King in the Award Winning HBO Drama “Don King, Only in America.” In the historical Civil War drama Gods and Generals , she portrays the slave, Martha. Although the film itself was not critically well-received, Abernathy was praised for her part by film critic Roger Ebert. Another reviewer stated that "Abernathy's image of Martha combines strength with glamour." She starred for four years as a series regular on Lifetime's Any Day Now . Born in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement after her parents’ home was bombed, Ms. Abernathy’s life has been dedicated to civil and human rights. [8]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Camp Nowhere | Dorothy Welton | |
| 1995 | Night of the Running Man | Francine | |
| 1995 | Lone Justice 2 | Effie Petit | |
| 2003 | Gods and Generals | Martha | |
| 2003 | Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood | Esmeralda | Video |
| 2006 | Grilled | Karen | |
| 2015 | Fingerprints | Delphine Frost | |
| 2016 | Sleight | Mary | |
| 2016 | 59 Seconds | Katherine | |
| 2020 | The Industry Did It | Aunt Urtha | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Murder in Mississippi | Sue | TV film |
| 1990, 1992 | L.A. Law | Jenny Manley, Naomi | Episodes: "Watts a Matter?", "Silence of the Lambskins" |
| 1992 | Grass Roots | Cora Mae Turner | TV film |
| 1993 | Sirens | Mariah Henry | Episode: "Strike Two" |
| 1993 | Bodies of Evidence | Clarissa Watson | Episode: "Endangered Species" |
| 1993 | Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life | Effie Pettit | Episode: "Return to Plum Creek" |
| 1994 | NYPD Blue | Mrs. Danton | Episode: "Guns 'n Rosaries" |
| 1994 | Family Album | Lorrie | TV miniseries |
| 1995 | Amazing Grace | D.A. Goodwin | Episode: "Family Values" |
| 1995 | Cagney & Lacey: Together Again | Alcina Lewis | TV film |
| 1996 | Dangerous Minds | Irene Timmons | Episodes: "Pilot", "Family Ties", "Need Deep" |
| 1997 | Miss Evers' Boys | Betty | TV film |
| 1997 | EZ Streets | Patricia Wyler | Episodes: "St. Jude Took a Bullet", "One Acquainted with the Night" |
| 1997 | The Burning Zone | Nora Dawson | Episode: "Wild Fire" |
| 1997 | Don King: Only in America | Henrietta King | TV film |
| 1998 | The Pretender | Susan Healy | Episode: "Hazards" |
| 1998 | Chicago Hope | Porschia Tate | Episode: "Absent Without Leave" |
| 1998 | The Tempest | Mambo Azaleigh | TV film |
| 1998–2002 | Any Day Now | Sara Jackson | Main role |
| 1999 | The Sky's On Fire | Dr. Hellstrom | TV film |
| 2002 | Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story | Narrator | TV film |
| 2003 | 24 | Barbara Maccabee | Episodes: "Day 2: 5:00p.m.-6:00pm", "Day 2: 6:00pm-7:00pm" |
| 2004 | Judging Amy | Denise Lawrence | Episode: "Conditional Surrender" |
| 2005–2006 | Commander in Chief | Patricia | Recurring role (season 1) |
| 2006 | House | Brady | Episode: "Skin Deep" |
| 2008 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Carolina Bell | Episode: "For Gedda" |
| 2008–2009 | Lincoln Heights | Hazel Glass | Episodes: "The Price You Pay", "Lucky" |
| 2012–2013 | The Walking Dead | Dr. Stevens | Episodes: "Walk with Me", "Made to Suffer", "The Suicide King" |
| 2013 | Shameless | Tawny | Episode: "Civil Wrongs" |
| 2015 | Father Pete's Corner | The Fairy | TV series |
| 2016 | Suits | Gloria Danner | Episodes: "Tick Tock", "25th Hour" |
| 2016 | Shooter | Mrs. Fenn | Episodes: "Exfil", "Overwatch" |
| 2017 | Chicago P.D. | Jeanette Barnes | Episode: "Don't Read the News" |
| 2019 | Words & Actions | Monica Henderson | Episode: "Man Delights Not Me, Nor Woman Neither" |
| 2021 | NCIS | NSA Deputy Director Ellis | Episode: “Rule 91” |
| 2022 | Good Sam | Carla | Episode: “A Light in the Storm” |
| 2022 | All Rise | Ness’ Mother | Episode: “Unwanted Guest” |
| 2022 | 9-1-1 | Joanne Kingston | Episode: ”The Devil You Know” |
The 2001 Smithsonian Institution's book of essays, In the spirit of Martin: the living legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Donzaleigh Abernathy was one of the contributing authors. [9] In 2004, she authored the book Partners To History - Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and the Civil Rights Movement, in honor of her parents. The book was nominated by the American Library Association as one of the “Best Books for Young Adults,” 2003. [10] [5]
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. He collaborated with King and E. D. Nixon to create the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led to the Montgomery bus boycott and co-created and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968; he led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., as well as other marches and demonstrations for disenfranchised Americans. He also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE).
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his assassination in 1968. As an advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American civil rights movement.
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and educator in Montgomery, Alabama.
Yolanda Denise King was an American activist and campaigner for African-American rights and first-born child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, who pursued artistic and entertainment endeavors and public speaking. Her childhood experience was greatly influenced by her father's highly public activism.
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. Under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott, a successful campaign that focused national attention on racial segregation in the South and catapulted King into the national spotlight.
Dr. Vernon Johns was an American minister based in the South and a pioneer in the civil rights movement. He is best known as the pastor (1947–52) of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was succeeded there by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Charles Lee Moore was an American photographer known for his photographs documenting the Civil Rights Movement. Probably his most famous photo is of Martin Luther King Jr.'s arrest for loitering on September 3, 1958. It is this photo that sparked Moore's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
King is a 1978 American television miniseries based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights leader. It aired for three consecutive nights on NBC from February 12 through 14, 1978.
James Edward Orange, also known as "Shackdaddy", was a leading civil rights activist in the Civil Rights Movement in America. He was assistant to Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. Orange joined the civil rights marches led by King and Ralph Abernathy in Atlanta in 1963. Later he became a project coordinator for Southern Christian Leadership Conference, drawing young people into the movement.
Georgia Davis Powers was an American politician who served for 21 years as a state senator in the Kentucky Senate. In 1967, she was the first person of color elected to the senate. During her term, she was "regarded as the leading advocate for blacks, women, children, the poor, and the handicapped," and was the chair of the Health and Welfare committee from 1970 to 1976 and the Labor and Industry committee from 1978 to 1988.
Johnnie Rebecca Daniels Carr was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from 1955 until her death.
Glenn Smiley was a white civil rights consultant and leader. He closely studied the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi and became convinced that racism and segregation were most likely to be overcome without the use of violence, and began studying and teaching peaceful tactics. As an employee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), he visited Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 during the Montgomery bus boycott where Smiley advised King and his associates on nonviolent tactics, and was able to convince King that nonviolence was a feasible solution to racial tension. Smiley, together with Bayard Rustin and others, helped convince King and his associates that complete nonviolence and nonviolent direct action were the most effective methods and tools to use during protest. After the Civil Rights Movement, Smiley continued to employ nonviolence and worked for several organizations promoting peace in South American countries. Just three years before his 1993 death, Smiley opened the King Center in Los Angeles.
Selma is a 2014 historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches which were initiated and directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. The film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and Common as Bevel.
The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tactics, and accomplishments of the people who organized and participated in this nonviolent movement.
Theodora Smiley Lacey is an American civil rights activist and educator. She helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott, fought for voting rights and fair housing, and helped lead the effort to integrate schools in New Jersey.
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down is a 1989 autobiography written by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy. The book charts his life and work with his best friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in their leadership of the Civil Rights Movement to help African Americans obtain equal rights with white Americans. His book engendered much controversy due to Abernathy's allegations of King's infidelity the night before he was assassinated.
Juanita Odessa Jones Abernathy was an American civil rights activist, and the wife of Ralph Abernathy.
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