Before Lena Horne "Black women were only allowed to play maids in the movies, and all of a sudden, the black community had this goddess."- Leslie Uggams
I don't remember the first time I heard Lena Horne sing, I have always had her music in my life and her unmistakable voice could make me cheer or reach for a Kleenex. No one else sounded like Lena Horne-a mix of cashmere and heart open emotion. Yet,I am not even sure if it was her singing that I remember as much as her image as she carried herself with such style, intelligence and sheer purpose.
Lena Horne was every inch an original. A glorious presence whose life and career reflected the tumultuous and triumphant times she lived through. She was an icon of style, grace and elegance...her breathtaking beauty and talent gave her a career but Lena Horne knew that career had limitations, limitations that she would spend her life breaking through. Truly a trailblazer, never afraid to go where she was told she could not-and though her fair skin allowed her to walk through many doors she was not welcome to stay in the room...Lena Horne battled with grace throughout her 92 years the injustices that kept her from those rooms. She was one of a kind, captivating and able to bridge the gap, blur the lines, between black and white thus allowing a new integration in entertainment. She could have had an easier road pretending to be something other than she was, but Lena Horne chose to be herself- an American original.
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“My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. 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.”
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