Lena Horne: A Woman Who Changed America

On Sunday, May 9, 2010, Lena Calhoun Horne transcended from our earthly realm to her eternal home at the wonderful age of 92.  A legendary entertainer in music, film, threatre, and television, Ms. Horne's career spans more than 70 years.  This Grammy and Tony Award winner's career highlights include the song and production ,"Stormy Weather"; the all-black adaptation of the "Wiz"; and her Broadway production entitled, "Lena Horne:  The Lady and Her Music". 

On a personal note, one of the things that most impressed me about Ms. Horne is the stance she took by not performing for military audiences that openly discriminated against black service members. During her World War II USO Tour performances, she refused to performed if the military seated black service members behind German Prisoners of War. Today, it is easy to underestimate the personal sacrifice and conviction it took for actors/entertainers of that era to take such a position.  It meant turning down gigs and a loss of income.  This is viewed as a laudable act now, but at the time it took great courage and chutzpah on Ms. Horne's part.  She went on to be active in the Civil Rights Movement.

In tribute to her, I want to share some of her quotes.  I hope that they are as much of an inspiration to you as they were to me. 

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.

My own people didn't see me as a performer because they were busy trying to make a living and feed themselves. Until I got to café society in the '40s, I didn't even have a black audience and then it was mixed. I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out . . . it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.


Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman, I'm not alone, I'm free. I say I'm free because I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody. I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.


For more information on the life of Lena Horne, please see the following links: 
1) http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3743&source_type=a
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Horne
3) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395043/bio
4) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/arts/music/10horne.html?pagewanted=1