NEW YORK, New York. Like so many other talented people, singer and actress Lena Horne went to Hollywood hoping to make it big, but in the 1940s, Hollywood had a rule for African-American performers like Horne: stay in the background. It wasn't easy, but Horne carved out a career despite the prejudice she faced, and when the beloved singer died on May 9, 2010, at the age of 92, she left behind an impressive legacy of artistry and strength.
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, the great-granddaughter of a freed slave, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917. At 16, in need of a job to support her ailing mother, Horne joined the chorus line at the famous Cotton Club in the Harlem section of New York City.Although the entertainers at the fabled nightspot were African American, the clientele was exclusively white—African Americans were not permitted inside the club unless they were headed for the stage.
Horne left the Cotton Club in 1935 and subsequently became the first black performer to sing with an all-white orchestra. She was singing in a club one night in 1942 when officials from the film studio MGM offered her a movie contract.
Horne certainly wasn't the only talented African-American performer of her day, but she was one of the most successful. She later attributed part of her success to the way she looked—white audiences, she said, were comfortable with her because her skin was relatively light. This prejudice angered and embittered her.
"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," Horne once said, adding, "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."
Although MGM wanted Horne to be in movies, it was as an African-American performer, which meant that she would not have the opportunity to become a major star. She starred in musicals, such as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, with all-black casts. Horne was a standout talent, and her rendition of the song "Stormy Weather" became a major hit and her signature piece. But when she was in movies with primarily white casts, Horne appeared only in musical numbers so that her short scenes could be cut out of the movies when they played in some parts of the country.
"[MGM's] cowardice deprived the musical [world] of one of the great singing actresses," film historian John Kobal wrote. During her career, in fact, Horne was called "one of the incomparable performers of our time" and "the best female singer of songs."
As frustrated as Horne became with the prejudice she encountered and witnessed throughout the country, she did not speak out about it until 1945. One night that year, she was entertaining at an Army base and saw prisoners of war sitting up front, while black American soldiers were required to sit in the back. From then on, Horne stood up for civil rights.
By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, joining several efforts and fearlessly speaking out when she encountered injustice. In 1963, Horne joined 250,000 others in the March on Washington, the demonstration where Martin Luther King, Jr.gave his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech.
In the early 1970s, Horne lost her father, her son, and her husband. Distraught, she withdrew and refused to perform until friends coaxed her back into the spotlight. When she emerged, it was with a new sense of purpose. She felt less bitter about the racism she faced, though no less determined to fight it. Stepping back onto the stages of concert halls, she enjoyed a new wave of popularity.
In her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Horne took audiences on a journey through her five-decade career. If people didn't appreciate Horne already, they did when they heard her voice. Horne showed that she was at home vocally, with a wide musical range that included blues and jazz, as well as relatively light songs, like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered."
Always a star for her fans, Horne became a superstar later in life—audiences appreciated her, and she was proud of who she was.
"I'm me," she said, "and I'm like nobody else."
You read that early in her career, Lena Horne sang at New York City's Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was a theater in a neighborhood called Harlem. Harlem flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, when it blossomed into a center for African-American writers, artists, and musicians, a phenomenon that came to be known as the "Harlem Renaissance," or rebirth.
How did Harlem become a magnet for artists? During the 1920s and 1930s, cities were magnets for workers of all types. In the early 20th century, large numbers of African Americans began moving from the farming communities in the South to cities in the North. One of these cities was New York.
African Americans migrated to northern cities for two main reasons: One, as the U.S. became more modernized, jobs were plentiful in the cities.Workers were needed to build cars and appliances, which had not been available just a generation or two before. Two, African Americans wanted to escape the racial discrimination that had been in place for centuries. Opportunities were extremely limited for black people in the South. They could not attend the same schools as white people, and they were often denied jobs because of the color of their skin. In the North, the future seemed brighter. Factories hired minority workers, and many northern colleges and universities accepted black students.
Living in the North was not always easy. Although there were more opportunities for African Americans, racism still existed. Segregation—the act of separating or shutting minorities out—was allowed in many parts of the North. Neighborhoods were segregated by race, as were many schools. And college-educated African Americans were often turned away when they applied for jobs. Some white people resented the newly arrived black population, fearing that they would lose their jobs to the newcomers. At its worst, racism was expressed through riots and violent acts against African Americans.
Still, African Americans in the North felt freer to pursue their dreams and express themselves.Given this freedom, artists—writers, painters, and musicians—emerged. In Harlem, they found a place to be creative and exchange ideas. This artistic explosion came to be called the "Harlem Renaissance."
Harlem's creative community included many names that would become famous. Writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, painters like Jacob Lawrence, and musicians like Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith all lived in Harlem. There, these artists could express themselves freely. Their joy, pain, and sorrow came across in their work on pages, canvases, and theater stages. The vibrancy in Harlem was too potent for white people to ignore. White audiences took notice of the creative output of African Americans. They went to Harlem to visit the clubs and hear black musicians play jazz. (Often, these clubs did not allow African-American patrons.) Many of the artists were published or recorded, and their work became known to people outside Harlem.
The Harlem Renaissance gave African Americans a voice in a nation that was still trying to silence them. Many of the works produced in Harlem during this era survive today.
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