I wanted to wrap up my final entry for this class with a tribute to Lena Horne, who died this week at the age of 92. A mixture of African American, European American, and Native American descent, Lena Horne was a jazz singer and actress who denounced the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, inhibiting her rise to superstardom.
In the ‘40s, Horne was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band, the first to play the Copacabana nightclub, and among a handful with a Hollywood contract—with MGM, where she starred in the all-black musicals Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather.
Here she is singing in Stormy Weather in 1943.
Horne was long involved with the Civil Rights movement. In 1941, she sang at Cafe Society, an all black nightclub, and worked with Paul Robeson, a fellow singer and actor as well as a social justice activist. She was at an NAACP rally with Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the weekend before Evers was assassinated. She was at the March on Washington and spoke and performed on behalf of the NAACP, SNCC, and the National Council of Negro Women. She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws.
Lena Horne died in New York City on May 9, 2010, but her legacy and participation in the Civil Rights movement will continue to live on in her honor.
