Anita Bush

Anita Bush (September 1, 1883 – February 16, 1974) was an African American stage actress and playwright. She founded the Anita Bush All-Colored Dramatic Stock Company in 1915, a pioneering black repertory theatre company that helped gain her the moniker "The Little Mother of Colored Drama". Anita Bush was born to Chapman Bush and Annie Elizabeth Bush, née Brown, on September 1, 1883, in Washington, DC. When she was three years old, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where her father, a master tailor, became “a theatrical costumer whose clients included many New York actors and performers”.

While working with her father at the Bijou Theater, she saw the renowned vaudeville company of Bert Williams and George Walker (Williams and Walker Co.), performing In Dahomey. It was during this time that she asked her father for permission to audition for the group, in hopes to gain a career in acting. At the age of 17, she was cast with the company and it allowed her to tour the world and pave a way for her to form her own companies. With the Bijou Theater Company, she “traveled to England with the musical and later performed in the Chorus of four other Williams and Walker shows”.

After performing in her final play, Mr. Lode of Koal with the troop, she formed her own dance group, Anita Bush and her 8 Shimmy Babies. Unfortunately, at the break of her career she had to stop dancing due to a back injury, which then inspired her to pursue a full-time career in theater drama.