Denzel Washington Family History

Denzel Hayes Washington was born on December 28th, 1954 to Denzel and Lennis Washington in Mount Vernon, New York (while George Washington of course had his estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia).

His father Denzel Sr, who came from Virginia, was a Pentecostal minister.  He ran two churches and was rarely around.  His wife Lennis ran a number of beauty parlors in Mount Vernon.  Her family had moved up to New York from Georgia in the late 1920’s.

Denzel commented:  “My father was just this spirit-filled man until the day he died, a country boy raised on a farm in Virginia.  She’s urban, raised in Harlem.” So perhaps it was not a surprise that the two filed for divorce when Denzel was fourteen.

Growing up in a predominantly African American suburb, young Denzel had witnessed many of his friends take up the path of drugs, crime and violence.

He is certain that he too would have ended up like them had it not been for his mother, then a struggling single parent, who sent him to the Oakland Military Academy in upstate New York to learn some discipline.

Determined to make something worthy of his life, he completed high school and studied journalism at Fordham University before embarking on a professional acting career.

Making it as an Actor.  After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Denzel began his career in theater, acting in performances off-Broadway.

He first came to prominence in the TV medical drama St. Elsewhere in the 1980’s.  He played several minor roles in films before Cry Freedom happened in 1987. His portrayal of anti-apartheid social activist Steve Biko established him as a talented character actor.

More challenging roles followed.  The actor was nominated in 2000 for an Oscar as best actor for playing the boxer Rubin Carter in The Hurricane, but narrowly lost out.  The next year he did win for playing a corrupt police officer in the 2001 crime thriller Training Day.

He was now firmly established as box office and has starred in a number of big-budget productions.  Frequently he plays military commanders and law enforcement officers.

The Past and the Future

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Denzel Washington recalled:

“A woman was sitting in my mother’s beauty shop in March 1975.  The reason I was there was that I had flunked out of college.  I was told to take a semester off to think about what I wanted to do.

Every time I looked up I saw this woman looking at me.  She said she was having a prophesy.  She didn’t say anything about me, about me being an actor, but that I would travel the world and speak more and more.”

Denzel also remarked:

“One day I decided to get into my car and drop into Harlem.  I stopped by the church that my mother grew up in.  The door was open and I went in.  And I got involved in that church.”

Denzel in fact got himself baptized and took lessons in order to obtain a minister’s license.  His father had been a Pentecostal minister.

The First Washington

Not George in this case but John.  Denzel Washington’s great great grandfather John Washington was born in slavery in Buckingham county, Virginia in 1812.

Post-Slavery.  Because slaves were not listed as citizens but as property, John Washington does not appear in any records until 1870.

The census record for that time showed that he was married to a woman named Phoebe with whom he had six daughters. He also had $450 worth of real estate, indicating he was a successful farmer within five years of being freed.

Later Washingtons

William Washington, born in 1846 in Westmoreland county, was the eldest son of John and Phoebe.

Curdsville, Virginia.  After emancipation, William and his wife Margaret settled in Curdsville, a small community in rural Buckingham county not too far away from Charlottesville.

The 1870 census recorded them and their children as “mulatto,” meaning that they had a white ancestor.  He was at that time listed as a farmer.  But he later moved to Newport News to take up a position of lighthouse keeper.  He died in 1892.

Still, Washingtons did remain at Curdsville.  William’s son William Jr. and his wife Virginia had a farm in Curdsville in 1920 and were recorded there as having six children.  Indeed the Washingtons mostly remained in this small community from the time of emancipation until the time that one of William’s sons Denzel moved away in the 1930’s.

Reader Feedback:  I am related to Denzel Washington through his uncle Ron Booker and his late brother Loew Booker from Hampton, Virginia (near Surry county and Jamestown).  Larry Booker.

Denzel Washington’s Family Tree

• William Washington born in Westmoreland, Virginia m. Margaret Harris (1852-1933) in Buckingham, Virginia, from slavery to emancipation
• – John Washington (b. 1867)
• – Charles Washington (b. 1870) m. Angela Davis
• – William Washington (1875-1940’s)

• William Washington m. Virginia Page (1878-1949) in Buckingham, Virginia
• – Anita Washington (1900-1977)
• – Wiley Washington (1902-1937) m. Ticia Kincaide
• – Sarah Washington (1906-1997) m. Henry Perdue
• – Warren Washington (b. 1908)
• – Denzel Washington (1909-1991)
• – Paige Washington (1913-1978) m. Carrie Gray
• – Christabell Washington (1915-2004) m. William Grice

• Rev. Denzel Hayes Washington Sr. from Virginia m. Lennis (Lynne) Lowe raised in Harlem in Buckingham, Virginia in 1949, divorced in 1968.  Lennis later retired in Rockville, Maryland
• – Lorice Washington (b. 1952 in New York), teacher
• – Denzel Washington (b. 1954 in New York), actor
• – David Washington (b. 1956 in New York) m. Wendy
• – plus briefly two foster children Douglas and Vanessa Smith

• Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. m. Pauletta Pearson, actress from Newton, North Carolina (b. 1950) in 1983 and moved to Los Angeles
• – John David Washington (b. 1984 in Los Angeles), actor
• – Katia Washington (b. 1986 in Los Angeles) with Colleen Wilson, film producer
• – twin Malcolm Washington (b. 1991 in Los Angeles), filmmaker
• – twin Olivia Washington (b. 1991 in Los Angeles), actress