She Walked Off Stage & Sang To The Back Of The Room

[KittyWampus]

She became, as she once said, "the first Negro sex symbol" (though devotees of Josephine Baker might have disagreed). But because Horne refused to take the roles of maids and prostitutes routinely accorded black actresses in that time, her movie career was confined to musical performances and never fully blossomed.

Moreover, her outspoken manner did not endear her to Hollywood chieftains or to certain aspects of the movie-going public. In a notorious incident during World War II, she walked onstage at a USO show at Fort Riley, Kan., only to see that German prisoners of war were sitting in front of black American soldiers.

Horne rebelled.

"I just walked off the stage and went up and sang to the back of the room," she remembered, in the Tribune interview. "It happened a couple of times, and they finally said, 'Get her out of the USO.'

"I just reacted as Lena, you know."

The movie star was becoming a lightning rod for criticism, her scenes — like those of many other black performers — excised from films when they were distributed in the South. Her second marriage, in 1947 to the white MGM composer-arranger Lennie Hayton, inspired violent threats and obscene mail after they went public, in 1950.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Lena-Horne-legendary-singer-and-actress-dies-at-481122.php#page-2

[FSogol]

1. K & R n/t

[Angry Dragon]

2. Need more of her kind today

She was a pretty woman

[prairierose]

3. She was a beautiful woman with an ...

incredible voice and more courage than we see very often today.

[bliss_eternal]

4. I've adored her my entire life...

I miss her already.
May she reast in peace.

[malaise]

5. Lena was a class act

who knew her worth. I loved her.
Hers was a life well spent.

[tabasco]

6. She will serve as a role model for centuries to come.

Thank you, Ms. Horne.

[progressoid]

7. She was definitely a sex symbol.

And so much more.

[JDPriestly]

10. She was not only beautiful, she was intelligent.

I don't think that the term sex symbol shows enough respect for Lena Horne. You wouldn't call other singers, say Ella Fitzgerald, a sex symbol. Lena Horne was an artists as well as a beautiful woman.

[Mira]

8. She was an inspiration and an example - her courage endures. Recommended

[MindandSoul]

9. What a beautiful and courageous woman! Such a shame she is gone

when we still need her so much!

[truedelphi]

11. I truly hope that her courage lives on, wherever

anyone faces oppression. Like others are saying, she was indeed a class act.

[Scurrilous]

12. Kick

:kick:

[Brickbat]

13. Great work in civil rights. A fabulous performer.

And she was fracking AWESOME on Sesame Street! I remember being fascinated by her at age 4 in my rural homogeneously white small town. Her style of speaking and singing (and, honestly, her teeth) were things I had never seen before. I loved her.