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Iris Hall

Iris Hall (1892–1984) was a Barbadian-American actor. She appeared in leading roles in two race films by the pioneering African-American director Oscar Micheaux: The Homesteader (1919) and The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920). Iris Hall was born on 1892 in Barbados. Her family emigrated to the United States when Hall was a teenager. She worked in Harlem as a singer, dancer, and beautician. She joined the Lafayette Players, a stock company of African-American stage actors, in 1916. She later joined African-American producer Sidney Perrin's company and appeared in Show Folks (1920) and High Flyers (1921). She also appeared in Strut, Miss Lizzie (1922). In The Homesteader, a now lost film, Hall played Agnes, the daughter of a white Scottish man who is unaware that her mother was mulatto. A black homesteader, Jean Baptiste, falls in love with her but they are unable to marry until he discovers she is black as well. Micheaux wrote of her in a letter: " A Miss Hall, sweet, tender, vivacious and clever - yet possessing all that which I have desired to play the sort of Agnes - can pass for white and is just the size. She has been with the Lafayette Stock Players for three years and has worked in movies as a maid with Pauline Frederick and can make up fine." In The Symbol of the Unconquered, Hall played Eve Mason, who inherits land from her grandfather, a prospector.…

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Article summary

Iris Hall (1892–1984) was a Barbadian-American actor. She appeared in leading roles in two race films by the pioneering African-American director Oscar Micheaux: The Homesteader (1919) and The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920). Iris Hall was born on 1892 in Barbados. Her family emigrated to the United States when Hall was a teenager. She worked in Harlem as a singer, dancer, and beautician. She joined the Lafayette Players, a stock company of African-American stage actors, in 1916. She later joined African-American producer Sidney Perrin's company and appeared in Show Folks (1920) and High Flyers (1921). She also appeared in Strut, Miss Lizzie (1922). In The Homesteader, a now lost film, Hall played Agnes, the daughter of a white Scottish man who is unaware that her mother was mulatto. A black homesteader, Jean Baptiste, falls in love with her but they are unable to marry until he discovers she is black as well. Micheaux wrote of her in a letter: " A Miss Hall, sweet, tender, vivacious and clever - yet possessing all that which I have desired to play the sort of Agnes - can pass for white and is just the size. She has been with the Lafayette Stock Players for three years and has worked in movies as a maid with Pauline Frederick and can make up fine." In The Symbol of the Unconquered, Hall played Eve Mason, who inherits land from her grandfather, a prospector.…

Key claims

  1. date of birth: 1892 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
  2. date of death: 1984 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of birth is "1892". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. The record states that the date of death is "1984". What evidence would count against this claim?
  4. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  5. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1341274706

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.