Title
Honoring the life and achievements of Lena Calhoun Horne.
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WHEREAS, Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1917 and died on May 9, 2010, at the age of 92 in New York, New York, and is survived by her daughter Gail Lumet Buckley; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne joined the chorus of the famed Harlem nightclub `The Cotton Club' in 1933 at the age of 16 and made her Broadway debut in 1934 in `Dance With Your Gods'; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne was the first African American performer to be signed to a meaningful long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and blazed a trail for African American female actresses in the Hollywood of the 1940s despite significant limitations based upon the color of her skin; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne appeared in several film musicals throughout the 1940s, including `Thousands Cheer' (1943), `Cabin in the Sky' (1943), `Stormy Weather' (1943), `Broadway Rhythm' (1944), `Two Girls and a Sailor' (1944), `Ziegfeld Follies' (1946), and `Words and Music' (1948); and
WHEREAS, Her one-woman Broadway show Lena Horne: 'The Lady and Her Music' (1981) won two Grammy Awards and a Tony Award and the recording 'Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria' (1957) became the best-selling album by a female singer in RCA Victor's history; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne was outspoken in her fight for racial equality and in the late 1940s, Lena Horne sued a number of restaurants and theaters for racial discrimination; and
WHEREAS, During World War II, Lena Horne used her own money to travel and entertain the troops and while entertaining troops at Fort Reilly, Kansas, during World War II, Lena Horne filed a complaint with the NAACP because African-American soldiers in the audience had to sit in back seats behind German POWs; and
WHEREAS, After World War II Lena Horne worked with Japanese-Americans, who faced discrimination and internment, with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws and was actively involved in the civil rights movement of the 1960s; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne stood with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders of the civil rights movement on August 28, 1963, in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; and
WHEREAS, Lena Horne spoke and performed on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National Council of Negro Women; and
WHEREAS, The passing of Lena Horne is a great loss to the Nation; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Honors the life and achievements of Lena Calhoun Horne.
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