Julian Hudson Mayfield (June 6, 1928 â€" October 20, 1984) was an
American actor, director, writer, lecturer and civil rights
activist.Julian Hudson Mayfield was born on June 6, 1928, in Greer,
South Carolina, and was raised from the age of five in Washington,
D.C. He attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and while there he
decided on being a writer as a career. After high school, he joined
the US Army in 1946 and was stationed in Hawaii before being honorably
discharged. He studied briefly at Lincoln University in
Pennsylvania.Mayfield moved to New York in 1948, originally to study
at New York University, but instead began a career in theatre. He
developed the role of Absalom Kumalo for the Kurt Weil musical Lost in
the Stars during 1949â€"50, before producing his own play Fire in 1951
and directing Ossie Davis's Alice in Wonder in 1952. Along with Ossie
Davis and Ruby Dee, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, John O.
Killens, Sarah E. Wright, William Branch, Sidney Poitier, and Loften
Mitchell, Mayfield became an important figure in what historians have
termed the New York Black Cultural Left. This group was associated
with the African-American singer and political activist Paul Robeson
and was composed of actors, writers and artists who believed that art
was a key component of the struggle for Civil Rights. During this
period, Mayfield spent summers at Camp Unity, a left-wing interracial
summer camp for adults in Wingdale, New York. There, he wrote and
produced his one-act play 417, which he later adapted into his first
novel, The Hit.
American actor, director, writer, lecturer and civil rights
activist.Julian Hudson Mayfield was born on June 6, 1928, in Greer,
South Carolina, and was raised from the age of five in Washington,
D.C. He attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and while there he
decided on being a writer as a career. After high school, he joined
the US Army in 1946 and was stationed in Hawaii before being honorably
discharged. He studied briefly at Lincoln University in
Pennsylvania.Mayfield moved to New York in 1948, originally to study
at New York University, but instead began a career in theatre. He
developed the role of Absalom Kumalo for the Kurt Weil musical Lost in
the Stars during 1949â€"50, before producing his own play Fire in 1951
and directing Ossie Davis's Alice in Wonder in 1952. Along with Ossie
Davis and Ruby Dee, Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, Audre Lorde, John O.
Killens, Sarah E. Wright, William Branch, Sidney Poitier, and Loften
Mitchell, Mayfield became an important figure in what historians have
termed the New York Black Cultural Left. This group was associated
with the African-American singer and political activist Paul Robeson
and was composed of actors, writers and artists who believed that art
was a key component of the struggle for Civil Rights. During this
period, Mayfield spent summers at Camp Unity, a left-wing interracial
summer camp for adults in Wingdale, New York. There, he wrote and
produced his one-act play 417, which he later adapted into his first
novel, The Hit.
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