The Killing of Canada Lee

From 1934 to 1951, Canada Lee was the most famous and revered Black actor of his day, associated -- and frequently starring -- with every landmark African American Broadway production. He broke barriers again and again by being cast in non-Black productions.

Unlike Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters, African American actors who also had huge midcentury careers, Canada Lee is virtually unknown. His early death at the age of 45 can be attributed to the blacklist of the postwar Red Scare which also buried his achievements. 

Mona Smith, Canada Lee's biographer, gave Shoga Films an extensive interview about the rise, political assassination, and virtual erasure of this African American hero. These final 25 minutes cover how Canada Lee became enmeshed in the coils of the FBI, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the blacklist, all of which strangled his career and contributed directly to the kidney disease that killed him.

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