When Delilah brings the rubbers and umbrella to the class room, the little girl is mortified that now everyone knows she is black.
I cannot find the name of the actress who played the little Peola (age about 8 or 9).
Anyone know. I really did try to find out by looking at the cast but they have People age 4, People age 19, Peopla age 35 but no Peola as a student in the classroom.
Thanks to anyone who knows.
This has come up before.
Possible spoilers
Serbie Hendrix played the role of Peola at age four at the beginning of the movie. Fredi Washington of course plays Peola at age nineteen when she decides to pass for white and later appears at the funeral. Beyond that her character is enrolled in a black college off camera and doesn't appear in the movie at the end. There is no record of who played Peola at age eight.
British stage, film and mid early TV actress Dorothy Black is credited with playing Peola at age thirty five. Aside from the fact the charter isn't depicted at that age it is highly unlikely an actress who made a career of playing upper class British characters and royals would be playing an African American or any other kind of American.
Although I may be wrong the best guess is a child actress by the name of Dorothy Black was cast as Peola at age eight and over the decades got confused with an actress with the same name. During the thirties movie studios were not very good at crediting supporting characters. Of course Peola at age eight was more then just a supporting character. In trying to hide her background in the classroom scene and telling her mother she didn't want to be black she defined her character. The actress who played her should have gotten some billing. Karen Dicker who played Sarah Jane in the 1959 remake did.
Thank you so much. You really did your research.
It was a great movie, wasn't it.