White playwright sues San Diego library for not letting her perform as Black historical figures

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A actress and playwright claims the San Diego County Library violated the Civil Rights Act by cancelling her one-person show that included performances of Black historical figures like Mary McLeod Bethune, and Harriet Tubman because she’s white.

In her one-person play, Annette Hubbell performs as a number of famous historical women, including 17th century Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet, Irish Christian missionary Amy Carmichael, abolitionist Harriet Tubman and others, she says in her complaint filed in San Diego federal court on Friday.

In May 2023, Hubbell netted a contract with San Diego County to perform her play in any or all of the county’s 33 branches. According to Hubbell, in December 2023, a manager at one branch requested Hubbell perform as three specific historical characters: Tubman, educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune and Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for $280.

Months later in March 2024, the same manager requested that she not perform as Tubman and McLeod Bethune, both of whom were Black, because they were uncomfortable with Hubbell, who is white, performing Black characters, Hubbell claims.

Hubbell refused and the library cancelled her performance, Hubbell says.

“Even though Annette portrays diverse historic figures with dignity, decency, and respect, she is concerned about what SDCL’s abrupt cancellation of her performance might imply to audiences and hosts of other venues. Annette also worries that if SDCL’s discrimination is permitted to persist, it will normalize government restrictions on actors and performers based on race, unfairly hindering artistic expression and opportunity. It is likely that Annette will receive fewer requests to perform as a result of SDCL’s actions,” Hubbell writes in her complaint.

Hubbell claims that the county’s library director and the county violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by racially discriminating against her by violating her right to equal protection under the law.

She also claims the county’s library violated California’s ban on racial discrimination in public contracting and the Civil Rights Act’s ban on racial discrimination in programs that receive federal aid.

“Most of all, Annette is ‘taken aback’ and ‘mystified’ by SDCL’s conduct, stating, ‘In the five years of performing these characters, there has never been a hint of offense, even from anonymous surveys. And why should there be? How could we ever explore our common humanity with these kinds of restrictions?’ She continues to agree with Mary McLeod Bethune, that ‘Our aim must be to create a world of fellowship and justice where no man’s skin, color or religion, is held against him,’” Hubbell writes in her complaint.

Hubbell is asking the court to grant her damages and to permanently block the library from ”treating individuals differently on the basis of race when approving or denying library programming,” she writes in her complaint.

Representatives of the San Diego County Library and San Diego County did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Annette wanted the opportunity to tell the stories of important historical figures from American history in a respectful and dignified way. San Diego cancelled that opportunity solely on the basis of Annette’s race in violation of the U.S. and California constitutions. We look forward to vindicating Annette’s rights and holding San Diego to their obligation to treat Annette and other actors equally, regardless of race,” wrote Andrew R. Quinio of the Pacific Legal Foundation, Hubbell’s attorney, in an email.

According to San Diego International Fringe Festival, Hubbell performed a play called Women Gone Rouge on four dates in May 2024, 2 months after the incident with the library branch. The festival’s website describes the play as featuring performances by Hubbell of historical figures like Tubman, McLeod Bethune, Beecher Stowe, Carmichael and Corrie Ten Boom, Gladys Aylward and Sojourner Truth.