Dorothy Randolph Peterson (June 21, 1897 – November 4, 1978) was an American teacher and actress who played an important role in the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

through her efforts to promote and preserve the achievements of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

artists.

Biography

Peterson spent much of her childhood in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, due to her father's work as the U.S. Consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. After attending university in Puerto Rico, she attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and moved to

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

in the 1920s. There, she engaged in the artistic community by hosting literary salons, as an early patron of '' Fire!! -- A Quarterly Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists,'' and as co-founder of the Negro Experimental Theater in 1929 with

Regina Anderson Regina M. Anderson (May 21, 1901 – February 5, 1993) was an American playwright and librarian. She was of Native American, Jewish, East Indian, Swedish, and other European ancestry (including one grandparent who was a Confederate general); one ...

. Her efforts to preserve African-American art and culture culminated with her founding of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and the Jerome Bowers Peterson Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes at Wadleigh High School in Harlem.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Dorothy Randolph 20th-century American actresses Actresses from New York City African-American actresses American stage actresses Schoolteachers from New York (state) American women educators African-American schoolteachers 1897 births 1978 deaths 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people