The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford (review)

The entertainment field was the last career young Lena Horne’s college-educated, activist grandmother would have advised for the child she helped raise during Lena’s parents’ frequent absences. Lena put her grandmother’s ideals on hold, however, trailing along with her performer mother from boarding house to boarding house, leaving school to join the chorus line at the Cotton Club, landing a gig with the black Noble Sissle Society Orchestra, and even becoming lead vocalist for the all-white Charlie Barnet Orchestra. As Horne’s career progressed from stage to screen, racial activism resurfaced in her life, and she became a standard bearer for blacks’ full participation in the entertainment industry, waging “a one-woman war against stereotypes by refusing to play maids and mammies onscreen.” Weatherford marks the highlights of a long career, focusing on the many lines in the sand Horne drew as she fought the segregation system during World War II, was blacklisted during the Joseph McCarthy era, and supported the 1963 March on Washington, all while retaining her polish and glamor. Such a luminous career demands compelling biographical treatment, but Weatherford eschews her customary poetry format, one that could have added a touch of jazz and showmanship, and instead uses a plainspoken prose style that, though accessible, is mostly lackluster. Likewise, Zunon’s oil and collage illustrations are more informative than engrossing, with flat backgrounds and stiff figures; the pair of photographs of Lena in her early years are likely to leave a more lasting impression. An author’s note and bibliography are included, but suggestions for “Further Reading, Listening, and Viewing” are bound to prove even more useful leads for readers intrigued by the stunning Miss Horne.