Random School Essays

Lena Horne's Life

This Moment in Celebration of Our Heritage is about Lena Horne. Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was a singer, actress, and Civil Rights activist. She was born on June 30,1917 in Brooklyn, New York to a banker/professional gambler and actress. When she was 3, her parents got divorced.

Since her mother was always on the road due to her many theatre groups, Lena spent most of her childhood living with her grandparents until she was old enough to accompany her mother. When Horne was 16, she dropped out of school and made her Broadway debut in the 1934 production of Dance With Your Gods. This is what kick started her musical career. Early in her career Horne was a member of the Cotton Club chorus and sang in nightclubs.

Horne moved to Hollywood in 1938 and appeared in several movies but in most of them the songs she sang were in nightclub scenes which were usually cut out when the movies were shown in the South. 1943 was an exceptional year for Horne who had starring roles in the movie musicals Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. We must remember this was a time when African American performers almost never played the lead in major Hollywood movies and certainly not in musicals. Both movies are now considered classics. Lena Horne changed the way black women were shown in movies and thereby helped break racial barriers.

During World War 2 Horne refused to perform before segregated troops or in Army camps where German prisoners of war were seated in front of black servicemen. She quit and financed her own troop camp appearances.

A renowned Civil Rights activist, Horne worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws, took part in the historic Aug. 1963 March on Washington, rallied for the NAACP, and met with President John F. Kennedy 2 days before his assassination.

Horne continued to perform, mostly in nightclubs and TV variety shows, until she retired in March, 1980. But a year later, she ended up starring in her one woman Broadway show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music and received multiple awards after touring for around 300 shows.

Lena seemingly disappeared from the public eye in the 2000's until she sadly died from heart failure in 2010 when she was 92 years old.

I chose to write about Lena Horne because she was a very strong and influential black woman and she is one of the people who inspired me to do music. This has been a moment in celebration of our heritage.