After completing college, she worked as a writer, and later as an editor, for several publications, including The New York Post, Essence, Life and Newsweek.
[1] By the time of Washington's death, several imprints were devoted to black romance novels, featuring books by authors such as Rochelle Alers, Beverly Jenkins and Sandra Kitt.
The company published 125,000 copies of Washington's novel, primarily distributed in cities on the East Coast with large African-American populations.
[3] Washington also wrote two works of non-fiction, her 1974 book Sickle Cell Anemia, co-written with Anthony Cerami, and the Uncivil War: The Struggle Between Black Men and Women, published in 1996.
[1] A 1998 article she wrote for Essence magazine received notice after she criticized the trend of African Americans who comported to "white standards of beauty" through the use of tinted contact lenses and other techniques.