The Washington Post's Adam Bernstein wrote that Lena Horne was the first black actress studios had to take seriously beyond her race. Well, the reason was simple: Lena Horne was so beautiful anyone who dared exclude her because she was black was considered psychotic. Lena Horne was the gold standard of beauty when I was growing up.
The very idea that Ms. Horne is no longer with us is so shocking I could not blog about it when I saw the news.
To understand why you have to see Lena Horne. This is Lena Horne singing "Stormy Weather":
This is Lena Horne singing "You'd Better Love Me" in 1967:
Lena Horne ushered in the era of what Harold Cruse would derisively call the "Black Bourgeoisie" in the classic The Crisis of The Negro Intellectual, and I point to because I long disliked that Cruse essentially sent a message that blacks should not want to pursue the American Dream.
That was the 1960s: a time not just of civil rights breakthroughs, but of many questions of what it was to be black. It formed the idea I have today: that being black is not what others say I should be or should do, but what I say I should be or should do as a person. You have to deal with me, not the other way around.
Lena Horne's existence was a guide for me.
Lena Horne was the American Dream as reality. A perfect counterpoint to Cruse's claim that it "did nothing for the economic development" of blacks.
Lena Horne opened doors just by being Lena. Lena Horne made it OK for people like me to be who we are today.
Lena Horne appeared on Rosie O'Donnell's show in 1997, and to talk about helping entertainers who were in ill health, the singing legends she knew, and her 80th birthday bash.
God bless Lena Horne.
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