Josie Woods (and partner)
*Josie Woods was born on this date in 1912. She was a Black British dancer, choreographer, and activist.
Woods was born Josephine Lucy Wood in Canning Town, London, in 1912. Her father, Charles Wood, was from Dominica, and her mother, Emily, had Gypsy ancestry. As a teenager, Woods worked as a seamstress before entering vaudeville. In 1927, Belle Davis held auditions for a dance troupe in the East End of London and selected Woods and her brother, Charles or Charlie. They trained with a clog dancing group, The Eight Lancashire Lads.
Davis created a Magnolia Blossoms group with several girls, including Woods. The Magnolia Blossoms worked in Paris with Louis Douglas and became part of his show Black People. Woods appeared in La Revue nègre, replacing Josephine Baker. Woods was married in the 1930s; her husband was abusive. Woods worked in France for two years before returning to Britain in 1932 as part of Eight Black Streaks. The group toured music halls and was successful, described as "the first established dance troupe of black Britons." They appeared in the film Kentucky Minstrels (1934). Woods also toured with Cyril Lagey and Ken "Snakehips" Johnson.
During the Second World War, she worked with Eddie Williams. Woods taught dance. She was one of the first people to introduce the jitterbug to Britain. After the Second World War, she set up an act with one of her students, Willie Payne, and they appeared in clubs as Ken Ross and Lucille. They were guest stars in the film The Nitwits on Parade (1949). Later, she worked with Cab Kaye in an act called Two Brown Birds of Rhythm. In 1956, she had a son with an American soldier stationed in the UK. Her son, Ralph Moore, was a saxophonist in America. Woods, a community activist in Brixton, taught people about Black British history.
When working as an extra on the film Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure (1951), she organized a strike over pay. In 1997, the BBC made a documentary about Woods for the Black Britain program. Woods is part of the Black History Tube Map set up by the Black Cultural Archives and Transport for London. Her biography was included in the Knowing Newham Hero Hunt, a children's theatre production developed for Newham Heritage Month in 2021. Josie Woods moved to California in 2001. She died on June 28, 2008, aged 96.
