Gertrude Hadley Jeannette (November , â€" April , ) was an American
playwright and film and stage actress. She is also known for being the
first woman to work as a licensed taxi driver in New York City, which
she began doing in . Despite being blacklisted during the Red Scare in
the s, she wrote five plays and founded the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players in
Harlem, New York, remaining active in mentoring African-American
actors in New York City. In the s and s she appeared in Broadway
productions such as The Long Dream, Nobody Loves an Albatross, The
Amen Corner, The Skin of Our Teeth and Vieux Carré. She also appeared
in films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem in , Shaft in , and Black Girl
in . She acted into her s and retired from directing theater at the
age of .Gertrude Jeannette was born on November , in Urbana,
Arkansas. Salley Getrude Crawford Hadley, her mother, was a homemaker.
Willis Lawrence Hadley, her father, taught on a Native American
reservation near Spiro, Oklahoma. Gertrude Jeannette had five brothers
and one sister, and grew up on a farm. The family moved to Little
Rock, Arkansas during the Great Depression, and she enrolled at the
segregated Dunbar High School.In she became the first woman to get a
license to drive a motorcycle in New York City, and she joined her
husband's motorcycle club in the early s. In , she took and passed the
cab driver's test and became the first female cab driver in New York
City.In , she was present at the Peekskill Riots, when the Ku Klux
Klan attempted to lynch Paul Robeson. Her husband worked as a
bodyguard for Robeson, and during the riot, she and her husband rushed
to the motorcycles to help get Robeson out.
playwright and film and stage actress. She is also known for being the
first woman to work as a licensed taxi driver in New York City, which
she began doing in . Despite being blacklisted during the Red Scare in
the s, she wrote five plays and founded the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players in
Harlem, New York, remaining active in mentoring African-American
actors in New York City. In the s and s she appeared in Broadway
productions such as The Long Dream, Nobody Loves an Albatross, The
Amen Corner, The Skin of Our Teeth and Vieux Carré. She also appeared
in films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem in , Shaft in , and Black Girl
in . She acted into her s and retired from directing theater at the
age of .Gertrude Jeannette was born on November , in Urbana,
Arkansas. Salley Getrude Crawford Hadley, her mother, was a homemaker.
Willis Lawrence Hadley, her father, taught on a Native American
reservation near Spiro, Oklahoma. Gertrude Jeannette had five brothers
and one sister, and grew up on a farm. The family moved to Little
Rock, Arkansas during the Great Depression, and she enrolled at the
segregated Dunbar High School.In she became the first woman to get a
license to drive a motorcycle in New York City, and she joined her
husband's motorcycle club in the early s. In , she took and passed the
cab driver's test and became the first female cab driver in New York
City.In , she was present at the Peekskill Riots, when the Ku Klux
Klan attempted to lynch Paul Robeson. Her husband worked as a
bodyguard for Robeson, and during the riot, she and her husband rushed
to the motorcycles to help get Robeson out.
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