Fredi Washington, born Fredericka Carolyn Washington on December 23, 1903, in Savannah, Georgia, was a pioneering African-American actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. She was the daughter of Robert T. Washington, a postal worker, and Harriet "Hattie" Walker Ward, a dancer.

After her mother's death when she was 11, she helped raise her younger siblings with the assistance of their grandmother. The family moved to Harlem, New York, during the Great Migration, and Fredi graduated from Julia Richman High School in New York City.

Her entertainment career began in 1921 as a chorus girl in the Broadway musical "Shuffle Along." She was hired by dancer Josephine Baker as a member of the "Happy Honeysuckles," a cabaret group, and Baker became a friend and mentor to her.

Her collaboration with Baker led to her being discovered by producer Lee Shubert, and in 1926, she was recommended for a co-starring role on Broadway with Paul Robeson in the play "Black Boy." She quickly became a popular featured dancer and toured internationally with her dancing partner, Al Moiret.

Fredi Washington turned to acting in the late 1920s, and her first movie role was in "Black and Tan" (1929), where she played a Cotton Club dancer who was dying. She also appeared in "The Emperor Jones" (1933) starring Robeson and played Cab Calloway's love interest in the musical short "Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho" (1934).

Her best-known film role was as Peola in "Imitation of Life" (1934), where she played a young light-skinned Black woman who decides to pass as white. Her last film role was in "One Mile from Heaven" (1937), after which she left Hollywood and returned to New York to work in theater and civil rights activism.

Fredi Washington was married to Lawrence Brown, a trombonist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, from 1933 until their divorce in 1951. She later married Dr. Hugh Anthony Bell in 1952, and they remained together until his death in 1970.

Fredi Washington passed away on June 28, 1994, in Stamford, Connecticut.