February is Black History month and I thought I would honor a woman
who crossed many hurdles during her 92 years.
Lena Horne was of mixed race and struggled to fit in on both sides.
She became a strong advocate for change in the civil rights movement.
Even dating back to WW2, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform for segregated audiences or for groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen", according to her Kennedy Center biography.
Because the U.S. Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she wound up putting on a show for a mixed audience of black U.S. soldiers and white German POWs.
Seeing the black soldiers had been forced to sit in the back seats, she walked off the stage to the first row where the black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her.
Lena Horne died in May of last year, leaving behind an amazing career as a singer and dancer.
One of her best known performances was that of the song "Stormy Weather",
but I thought I would post this lesser known performance.
Here she is with Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street singing
"It ain't easy bein' green"
I think it held a lot of deeper meanings for Lena as well.
