Tressie Souders(1897-1995)
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Little is known about Theresa "Tressie" Souders, who in 1922, became the first known African-American female director, when the Afro-American Film Exhibitors Company of Baltimore and Dallas, Texas, contracted with her to distribute her film "A Woman's Error." Billboard Magazine for January 28, 1922 (34:107) published the company's announcement that "'A Woman's Error' was the first of its kind to be produced by a young woman of our race, and has been passed on by the critics as a picture true to Negro life." It appears that Ms. Souders left Kansas City, Missouri for Los Angeles; the 1930 census finds her (as "Tressa" Souders) living at the Sojourner Truth Industrial Home at 1119 East Adams Avenue; her occupation was "Servant, Private Home." She may have gone to Los Angeles as an attempt to get into the motion picture business; however, as far as it is known, she spent most of the rest of her life as a domestic worker. Voting records have her at the East Adams address until 1935, when she married Oscar Carnelus West, a native of Richmond, Va., who ran a pool hall in the Watts section of the city of Los Angeles. There were no children of the marriage, which was short-lived. By 1940, Tressa West was in San Francisco, where she would stay the rest of her life, other than periodic visits south to Los Angeles. She died in San Francisco in her ninety-fifth year, and is buried in Frankfort Cemetery in Marshall County, Kansas.