Barbara Ann Teer

Barbara Ann Teer (June 18, 1937 – July 21, 2008) was an American writer, producer, teacher, actress and social visionary.

Her sister, Frederika Teer, was a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Field Secretary (organizer) in the north and mid-South from 1960.

In 1961, Teer made her Broadway debut as dance captain in the Tony award-winning musical Kwamina, which was choreographed by Agnes de Mille.

Teer grew disillusioned with the negative stereotypes she came across in her quest for responsible acting roles, making an exception to appear in the 1969 motion picture Slaves.

Leaving a career, and following in the activist footsteps of her older sister Fredrica (who had been an organizer with Eldridge Cleaver and Stokley Carmichael), Teer founded the National Black Theatre (NBT).

[citation needed] She purchased a city block of property in Central Harlem on a major business corridor at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue.