An Open Letter to the State of Israel

To the State of Israel,

and to the people of Israel who must work to change their country, I write today to fully condemn the actions of Israel and their handling of protestors attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Let me stop and begin again here with some reasoning for my total condemnation of Israel’s actions as indeed their entire chosen method of interacting with the Palestinian people. Dear Israel, you have become a monster. I feel I completely understand the way Israel behaves and I want to be frank, firm, and direct in addressing what I see that is shameful, wrong and condemnable in Israel and the way it has conducted itself in the world. Dear Israel, for too long, you have modeled your behavior in the mold of your white western benefactors and it is a shameful and disgraceful legacy that casts a gall on the entirety of the state of Israel. You are no John Wayne. For too long you have treated the Palestinians like Hollywood and the rest of America treated the Native Americans. In the words of Nikki Giovanni, you are not the big bad cowboy, you are the Indian you so disdain….

I feel sad because I feel that Israel has fallen from its exalted state. I feel that you are no longer chosen….God’s people would not act in this way. God is neither an imperialist or a colonizer. You must awaken from this terrible malaise of patriarchy and militarism that you have fallen into and start to live in harmony with the rest of the world, especially the Palestinians. You must also stop trying to remake yourself in the mold of white men…or else you will suffer and learn the same lesson which they have learned and will learn. Live in peace and dignity, not in death and the ruin of all around you.

With Great Sincerity,

Brandon Wallace

Interview with David Saucedo of the Tea Party Movement

David Saucedo is a leader in the Tea Party movement hailing from Waco, Texas. He is a performer and is currently on a national tour with the Tea Party Express, taking the message of their party across the country. In an effort to understand the Tea Party movement and gain some clarity about their beliefs, I approached Mr. Saucedo and asked to interview him. Having agreed, I submitted several questions to Mr. Saucedo concerning the economic and political philosophies of the Tea Party movement. This is what transpired.

1. What is the basic platform of the Tea Party Movement?

The TEA party movement is based on limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would say the goal is restoring America back to a Republic based on law.

2. How did the Tea Party come about? When and where was the party established?

As far as I know the TEA Party movement started when the majority of Americans connected with the message of Taxed Enough Already. Sometime in early 2009.

3. How would you have the general public distinguish the Tea Party movement from the birthers and other right wing extremist groups?

It’s unfortunate, but just like in any other movements, there are people that carry the name without the principles. The TEA Party movement is about fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. If you would like a great example of a TEA Party, visit www.wacoteaparty.com. Here in Waco, we are focused on monitoring our elected officals, promoting free market solutions and vetting candidates in a real way. Feel free to point out any differences on your own.

4. What is your response to the charge that racism and xenophobia serve as the underpinnings of the Tea Party movement?

I’ve been to TEA Parties across the nations and I have not meet a racist yet. I believe that racism and other non relevant arguments are the only ammo TEA Party opposition have. How can you argue against a movement that brings a majority of Americans together in support of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market? As for being xenophobic, I would say that TEA Partiers, for the most part, are dedicated to what works rather than afraid of what’s different.

5. How would you explain incidents between Tea Party activists and Black members of Congress-particularly charges that someone from the Tea Party spat on Representative Andre Carson of Indiana and in a separate incident Representative John Lewis of Georgia was called a Nigger?

These allegations have long been proven untrue. One of the two congressmen came out and said it never happened. The day Congressman Carson was allegedly spat upon, 90% of the media present were hostile to the TEA party. Why hasn’t any video evidence been presented, even with a $100,000.00 reward for any such evidence? I seen “say it don’t spray it” but no assault took place.

6. Why didn't the Tea Party movement make a presence during the Bush administration? Where were the protests against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or to Bush's response to the economic collapse in 2008?

During the Bush administration people were just opening their eyes to the fact that American Leadership is two parties of stupid! Obama came with his promises of no more business as usual campaign. The only problem is that his administration is nothing but politics as usual. Obama’s administration is pushing America toward collectivism more than any President in our history. He’s just the straw that broke the activist back. The same people that voted for Obama’s hope and change are the people that are standing against his agenda. Look at any poll you want, people do not want his high tax, high spend change. If officials would look to their constituents for solutions, they would find solutions that make common sense. That’s what the TEA Parties are doing, becoming the solutions.

7. What are your assessments of the changes in the American economy in the past thirty years? Where do you ascribe either blame or credit for these changes?

When we talk about the changes in the American economy, I would rather understand the first 200 years rather than the last 34. Fractional banking and central banking are the biggest reasons for our economic problems. Any American official that does not speak out against the federal reserve is to blame, that includes democrats and republicans! If we do not have a solid monetary system, financial reform is just a distraction from the real problem. This is a great question my friend, but the answer to it can be better explained at www.educatorsofliberty.org. If your willing to spend the time, you can learn a great deal about our current monetary system and how un-American it is.

8. Do you feel that Reagan or at least Reaganomics bear any responsibility for the collapse of "the American Way of Life" as we have known it socially and economically?

I don’t know enough about Reaganomics to speak about it. I do feel however that my previous answer addresses the issue of the collapse of “the American way of life."

9. It used to be fifty years ago that in the United States, it was people of color who went to school, got degrees, and then found themselves working as domestics and in other menial employment. This was due to discriminatory practices. Now, almost everyone, regardless of color, face prospects of finishing college with few prospects in terms of anything approaching substantial gainful employment. Do you recognize a natural progression between these two social phenomena? What do you think is the onus for these developments in the American economy?

I’ve met people with more degrees than a thermometer that just don’t have any common sense. I’m a believer in striving to work for yourself rather than working for someone else. If you have the intelligence to run a corporation or organization, why would you strive to work for someone else? I know why, because our education system teaches us our whole lives to make good grades, do good in school so you can get a good job and work for somebody. I support the Dare To Dream approach to teaching our children to succeed, because it teaches them to spend most of their time working for them selves. We always have students that choose to work toward a career with an existing business or corporation, but many choose self employment when given the choice. If we want to see more professionals we have to work on a system that caters to the individual and teaches the power of an individual with the liberty to strive. I blame inaction on the community level for the low number of professionals coming out of low income areas.

10. Does the Tea Party blame undocumented workers or immigrants as a whole for the troubles in the American economy?

No one blames undocumented workers or immigrants for our economic problems. As a TEA Partier I do not deal with immigration because I haven’t seen yet, how it would fall under limited government, free market or fiscal responsibility. I do however have thoughts on the issue as an individual activist. Our borders are real and it is a crime to illegally cross them. As an ex-convict I know first hand what happens to Americans when they break the law. It is unfair to let certain people break law without punishment, yet prosecute others. I will go back to my feelings that we MUST take our country back to it’s law based origins. We can not continue disregarding the laws of our land.

11. What are your thoughts on the immigration debacle now happening in Arizona?

It is not Arizona’s job to secure Americas borders! If the federal government were doing their job, Arizona would not be forced to take such measures for the safety of it’s people. That being said, I have read the Arizona law and it does nothing more than mirror federal law. I support the Governor’s actions because she specifically prohibits racial profiling.

12. What do you make of Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James' television ads calling for an "English Only" policy in the state of Alabama? Many people describe these ads as racist and offensive.

I can’t really make anything of it. If it is purely for the purpose of saving the state money then it isn’t racist, it makes sense in these tough times. Only Mr. James can know his true motives. I’m eager to see how his campaign plays out.

13. Would you describe the Tea Party movement as anti-immigrant?

The TEA Party is limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market. I would not support the TEA Party getting involved in the immigration issue unless someone can clearly show how it falls under one or all of the above mentioned issues. The TEA Party movement is not about social issues, even though supporters of the TEA Party movement can’t help but express their individual feelings on social issues. I would suggest that you look into the leadership of any TEA Party, if you see that they are picking up social issues outside of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free market, you can call them on not properly representing the TEA Party movement. But always remember, no one TEA Party represents the whole movement.

14. The Tea Party is very vocal about the unfairness of the tax system in the United States. Does the Tea Party Movement call upon corporations to pay their fair share of the tax burden?

I’ve been looking into the Fair Tax movement, I can’t speak for the whole TEA Party movement, but I like the Fair Tax approach. I’ve been politically involved for less than a year so I am learning as I go. When it comes to unfair taxes, The Fair Tax movement looks like the best solution to me at this point.

15. Where does the Tea Party fit into the context of previous populist movements in the U.S., particularly the populist movements of the 19th and early 20th Centuries?

The TEA Party movement is all about fiscal responsibility, free market and limited government, what were the others about? Once you put them side by side you can determine their similarities and differences.

16. What impact do you hope the Tea Party movement will have on American society?

I will work within the TEA Party movement to revolutionize the way we engage our elected officials. I believe the TEA Party movement will be the biggest factor in replacing non-conservative officials throughout the nation. I see the framework in the TEA Party that will carry messages of solutions to every state without the help of government. Look at any poll, the TEA Parties are clearly Americas choice when it comes to understanding the issues.


Thanks for agreeing to this interview.

Jamaica Kincaid on Israel's Latest Deplorable Behaviour

From Haaretz

In America, we don’t know how to talk about Israel but it is especially so on television. If you could bring yourself to watch the Fox television channel (and I did bring myself to do this but could only do it five minutes) you would think that Israel is a tiny, tiny, so tiny country, all alone in the world surrounded by some very big and very powerful enemies who at every moment were capable of reducing this tiny, so tiny powerless country to extinction and so this tiny country had to absolutely inflict some minor inconveniences, not on its very, very big and powerful enemies but on some people who live nearby.

From the television, Israel appears to us to be more important than Hawaii or Alaska, or for that matter, Nebraska or Oklahoma. I, an American, have never been to any of those places. I have been to Israel three times. So naturally when the flotilla incident occurred, it was only a matter of time, like the next hour, before it was a constant part of the news. American President Barack Obama’s life is finished if he doesn’t do something about the British Petroleum ruining the Gulf of Mexico and at the same time do something about the Flotilla incident.
Jamaica Kincaid frame

Jamaica Kincaid

On television, CNN or MSNBC, the Israeli Prime Minister gives him hints, so does the Israeli ambassador to the United States, so does someone who used to give advice to the President of the Palestinian people, so do some senators, and people who used to advise other presidents of the United States about going to war against countries that are not too far from Israel, and people who say they love Israel - and these are the sort of people who make you think that love is strange.

To go from channel to channel is to hear from the same people the same words and phrases: we were set up; they had weapons; they had sling shots and metal pipes and marbles; they used our guns against us; we were defending ourselves; international waters; a provocation; the fight against terror is not an easy choice; a hard choice; we had no choice; Israel should; Israel should not; Gaza, Egypt and Hamas; these people are not peace loving; we are a peace loving people.

It’s the Israeli Ambassador to the United States who is really fascinating. He does not falter in his defense of his country’s right to do anything. Right after the “incident” ( a word that I think goes well with that other word “situation”), when I first saw him on the air, he looked shaken, his voice even unsteady, or so he seemed to me. But then later, he was in full throated form. He seemed to me to be saying, that in a world full of bad actors, why wasn’t Israel allowed to be one of them. I wanted to ring him up and tell him that it was okay to be a bad actor, you just don’t want to look like it. Ask my country, the United States. More than anything, that’s the thing we do best.

Who Joins the Military?: In Honor of Memorial Day

This is a very telling piece concerning the current makeup of the U.S. Army and the reasons why people enlist.

This is a White House with Some Backbone

Kudos to the Obama administration for admonishing Israel's actions in this latest round of bloodshed and terror. The White House has signed on to the U.N's condemnation of the deaths that occurred as a result of Israel's version of rough wooing. Although, it definitely does not bite quite as deep into Israel as it could, it is a step and should be applauded.

Interview With Grace Wells

Grace Wells is an acclaimed author of children's books. Her children's novel, Gyrlfalcon, won the Eilis Dillon Award in 2003 and was selected as an International White Raven's Choice. Wells also enjoyed a successful career as a television and music video producer based in London. Now living in Ireland, she has recently published her first collection of poetry, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things. Her poetic voice in this collection recalls the works of such poets as Adrienne Rich and Dorothy Allison as she addresses such issues as home life, domestic violence, and the ties that bind in families and relationships. Wells recently agreed to do an interview with JuliusSpeaks. This is what transpired.


1.Tell us about your background and where you are from.

I’m from London, England, a mostly Anglo-Saxon background, with some Russian Jews from the 1890’s thrown in to spark thing up.
For some years in the late 1980’s I produced TV commercials and pop videos, but I’d always wanted to write, so once I’d come to Ireland in 1991, had children, and got those children into school, I was able to take up writing in a more full way. I also work in arts administration and facilitate creative-writing workshops.

2.Discuss the title of your book, When God Has Been Called Away to Greater Things. What in particular is the significance of the title in light of the corresponding poem within the book?

The whole voyage of the book is to do with a sense of God being absent, and the terrible things that people do to one another while that sense of spiritual presence is far away. In fact, I could add, even while that presence is up close, because many truly terrible things have been done, and are being done, in the name of God.
But mostly the book is about a sense of isolation and the lack of a vivid Spiritual presence. There are poems about childhood and growing up, and poems about people living within difficult relationships or whose lives are challenged in other ways. The title poem is, I think, the first time that we see the narrator(me) acknowledge, and realize, that within all this craziness, there is an imprint of God’s presence.

I think the whole tension of the book is that the phrase means two things: one, that we are alone and isolated while God seems to be off doing great things elsewhere, and also, on the other hand, that right there, in our pain and our isolation, that’s where we really can see God manifest. Hafiz has written “No one can resist a Divine invitation/That narrows down all our choices
/To just two:/We can come to God
/Dressed for Dancing,/Or/Be carried on a stretcher/
To God's Ward.” These are pretty much poems about the stretcher ride.

3.Your poetry is filled with metaphor. Throughout your poems you reference animals, using them in metaphor-the fox, the horse, the wolf. What is the significance of these metaphors in your work?

I think we’ve been relating to our humanity via the animal world for a long time. A lot of our sayings, like ‘keeping the wolf from the door’, you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’, show that humanity has never felt itself too far away from the animal world. Now the majority of us live in cities and the action that plays out on the screen of our lives, is not full of nature. But I haven’t lived in a city for more than twenty years. My life is informed by the countryside, it’s understandable that it should have come into my poems in a strong way. Neruda said “The sea, fish and birds have a material existence for me, I depend on them just as I depend on daylight”. I feel the same way. When I wrote in my poem ‘Pioneer’, “she is sung with fox bark and pheasant call./Creatures roost in her thoughts, her days/ are measured by the slink, the leap, the pounce,/ the pitched balance of wings breaking into flight”, I’m writing of the things that are crucial to me. The natural world is so jeopardized by human beings, that it’s vital people become more conscious of its central role in our lives—and very quickly. If I write a lot about nature, it’s because part of me is shouting about our need to protect all this, for our own survival. In the poetry the call for protection emerges in a more subtle way, but inside, I’m screaming.

4.Your poems speak to issues of domestic violence and the everyday strife of domesticity. Tell us of your personal experiences with these issues. How do your experiences inform this collection of poetry?

I didn’t exactly chose to write about domestic abuse. It came at me and that was the primary material I had beneath my hands, so that’s why those poems are there. I feel I’ve said enough in the poems about those issues without having to say more in a public forum. When I’m speaking directly with victims of abuse I’m more open about my own experiences. But in a way I don’t think it matters that the poems are about abuse, in essence they’re about struggle and overcoming that. Every life has struggle. I think it’s always good to read about people who have come through.

Traditionally women’s poetry was marginalized and derided because it often dealt with the domestic, and rather than veer away from the domestic because of that, I think I have an obtuse desire to really look at it. I feel it’s not what you write about, it’s how you write about it. I think these are good domestic poems. Besides, if we get the domestic right, then we’re in a position to write about the big stuff. As my collection progresses, and the domestic world becomes more sane and livable, the poetry moves its focus and expands to include things like poverty in Africa, and global warming.

5. Am I correct in identifying an abusive father and an abusive husband in the poems?

Well these two people don’t even belong in the same sentence. My father had been involved in the Second World War, he’d taught young men in the RAF, and seen hundreds of them go to their deaths. He was marked by the war, and like so many men of his generation, he couldn’t contain his grief and rage.

6. I find your poetic voice to be an interesting mix of Adrienne Rich and Dorothy Allison. In your collection, you also pay homage to Sylvia Plath. Can you draw connections between yourself, Rich, Allison, and Plath?

When I first read that question I was very flattered. I thought, well that’s amazing that someone is linking my name with Rich and Plath. I don’t know Allison’s work, and I haven’t been able to source any, so, sadly, I can’t comment on that. But actually, after the initial sense of compliment, I started to get concerned. I’ve never been drawn to Plath’s work, her love affair with death just doesn’t draw me in. I haven’t consciously paid homage to her, if I have, that’s accidental. I know I’ve paid homage to Raymond Carver. His work was very important to my own. His work is vital and life-saving. Plath’s is a downward spiral. That isn’t what I feel poetry should be about. For me poetry is the life-affirming guide-rope that leads us from trouble. Carver knew that, it was his legacy and his gift to us. Besides there have been so many wonderful women writers since Plath, before Plath even, that it distresses me greatly that she’s dominated the scene.

As for Rich, I’ve never felt comfortable with her work either. She’s on the dense, incomprehensible side. I believe poetry should be generous and open, certainly it should be language-driven and provocative, but not distressing to our own sense of ability to understand. Right now Rich’s work is on the secondary school syllabus here in Ireland. And though a number of students will love her, and be invited, through her, into the world of poetry, she’s actually going to make thousands more run from poetry and never pick up another book of poems. That’s not what I’d hope for my own work.

7. In reading your work, I immediately thought of Adrienne Rich and her commentary, through poetry and prose, on domestic life, particularly where issues of gender and gender equality are concerned. How do your observations and philosophy delivered in this collection mirror Rich’s commentary on domestic life? I specifically identify “ The Dress,” “The Only Medicine,” and “The Lone Parent Does Not Write” as speaking to Rich’s work.

Well, as I said before, I don’t feel my work and Rich’s resonate off one another—at least not directly. I like her line, “A thinking woman sleeps with monsters”, it was used as the title of a brilliant book by Rebecca Wilson, an anthology of work and conversations with Scottish and Irish women Poets published in 1990. That book was very important to me, and many of the writers in it were undoubtedly influenced by Rich, so I can see she’s been relevant to my work, in the way a grandmother might be, but women writers have come so far since then, that I feel it’s time we stopped gyring around those rather outdated forces.

8. Does the poem “Rescue” reference the 1970s film, Deep Throat? Alice Walker, bell hooks, and several other feminist writers have addressed this film in their work. What were your impressions of this film? If this poem is not about that film, could you speak to this tradition of misogyny in cinema and offer your perspective on it?

The reference is to a much later film, and it was just a fairly ordinary main-stream movie, one of many where human sensuality is miserably misrepresented. I’ve never seen Deep Throat and wouldn’t think to. Somewhere in the 60’s and 70’s the floodgates burst on sex in cinema. I’ve read it began in Europe, where attitudes were quite open compared to American cinema of the time. The result has been that some decades later we live in a pornographic culture.

Pornography has spilled into the everyday and we’re awash with it. So much so, that I don’t think there’s even an intelligent discussion about its presence in our midst. The bar keeps getting lower, nothing is protecting young people and children, especially girls, from the rampant sexualisation of their culture and thinking. While many women are able to move forward into more independent, fulfilling lives, the exact opposite is also true, we’re seeing the development of a vast sex-slave culture, where millions of women are trafficked into the West to lose their basic freedoms. At another level it is now normal for women to keep their thumbs in their beer bottles when they got out at night, so their drinks aren’t spiked. That this kind of behaviour as a normality shows us how deeply disturbed the culture is.

The World Health Organisation tells us that one in five women in the West live in abusive relationships, one in three in the Developing world. For me these issues are central; those figures are not marginal. Anyone who thinks feminism is redundant is wrong. The tensions and personal dramas women have faced for centuries are still with us, only they’ve mutated form. We haven’t moved as far as we think we have, we’re still fighting for our lives.

9. You write about moving from England to Ireland in your work. What impact has this transition had on your life? What are some of the changes you have found in your life as a result of the move?

I have a certain sense of displacement I suppose, I’m not an Irish poet, yet my whole working life has been here, so I’m not really an English poet either. Ireland has had a deeply formative influence on who I am as a person. Mostly for the good, but not in easy ways. Like anywhere, there are good and bad things about Ireland. As an English person, it can be difficult living here because of Ireland’s history. The terrible things that the British did down the centuries are alive and unforgiven. The Irish are still in a process of recovery. Though our islands are very close, we have entirely different pasts. Many elements make for a subtle but ever-present tension against the English, which can be hard to live with.

Mostly what I love about Ireland are the people. I have some really great friends here. They’re very earthed, very focused toward real concerns: our shared humanity, concern for the planet. I feel it’s because we have more space here, more of a sense of what needs to be saved. Ireland has provided me with a sense of nurture and Spirituality that I simply might not have found in England. The land here is very alive with resonance. People here talk about the veil between the worlds being thin. I always feel it’s because Ireland only has a small population, and you can still get away from them to hear the land speaking. The sense of place is very alive in Ireland, very vibrant.

Then there’s the language, Hiberno-English is a much richer form of language than London-English. I know it has found its way into my writing. I’m also immersed in the Irish poetry scene. It’s a small enough world, so you can really remain aware of who is writing what. I like that. If I were in England there’d be so many names and characters, and a kind of resultant chaos.

10. Looking at your life experiences and the issues that you address in this book, what is your personal philosophy on juggling issues of marriage, children, personal identity, and all of the inherent in those connections?

It’s a day by day thing. Even an hour by hour thing. Often I’ve been in a great space, I’ve worked at my desk for hours, I’ll emerge from my study a wise and profound being and, within minutes, have one of my children reduce me to a neurotic wreck. I don’t have a big philosophy, one is constantly juggling and seeking balance. The minute you have equanimity, it passes and you’re right in the middle of the next drama.

Beneath the glass-top on my desk there are a couple of messages I like to keep with me. One simply says “Faith & Courage”. Another says: “Our single purpose is to magnify that Light we share between us”. And the last is e.e cummings: “I thank you God, for most this amazing/day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees/and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything/which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” I muddle along somewhere in that midst.

11. The last poem in the book, “Work,” speaks of catharsis. How has this collection served as your catharsis?

The process of poetry has been very important for many years as a form of catharsis. My work has been enmeshed in a process of transforming dark material into something worthwhile, something meaningful, and almost darkly beautiful. I haven’t wanted that destiny, but that’s what came towards me. So ultimately I have huge belief in the power of art to transform and heal. Art, darkness, sexuality and spirituality have been the big themes of my life. The great thing about this book is that it puts a lot of things to rest. It clears the air, empties the shelf space and allows for new work. C.S Lewis wrote, “we read to know we are not alone”. For me writing has always been about that, a sharing of our humanity. All along I doubted the sanity of publishing these poems, but I kept on because I knew there were women who needed to read them, women who needed to see a way out of abuse, or women who couldn’t recover from it. I kept saying to myself I was doing it for them, to help them heal. Now those women are coming forward and thanking me in person, I see that actually the whole process is also about my healing at a yet deeper level. They’re the ones who remind me how relevant my work is, how despite everything, I belong.


12. Thanks for this interview.

Israel needs to be boxed about the ears.

An Activist Died this Week, Native of Prattville, Alabama

Dan Houser of Prattville died this week in a Chicago nursing home. In 1967, Houser was associated with Stokeley Carmichael and brought him to Prattville, Alabama. I blogged about this previously. Here is the link.

Beautiful Malcolm

Tears for Aiyana Jones

The American media gets on my last nerve. I don't buy into any of this radical islam crap. None this was happening until white men went over in their countries as colonizers. Radical islam my butt. If you people would stop being eurocentric imperialistic and trashy they wouldnt be trying to kill you.

Lula and Ahjmadenijad--the Power of the Second World

In Honor of the Birth Control Pill:Happy Fiftieth Anniverary

A Biography in Tribute of Lena Horne

Lena Horne, actress, singer, and civil rights pioneer, was one of the most talented and influential women of her generation. Born in 1917 in an upper middle class home in Brooklyn, New York, she was raised by her grandmother and grandfather, Cora and Edwin Horne. Lena found an early inspiration for the course she would take in life in the person of her grandmother, Cora Calhoun Horne. Cora Calhoun was a seasoned political activist, recognized during her lifetime as a major suffragist and one of the pioneers of the Niagara Movement, the movement that led to the founding of the NAACP. Under her grandmother’s guidance, Lena became a member of the NAACP as a toddler. Along with her social and political activism, Cora Calhoun was also a philanthropist and an advocate of education for Blacks. In 1917, Cora Calhoun secured a scholarship that allowed a young Paul Robeson to attend Rutgers University. This legacy inspired an intense friendship between Lena Horne and Paul Robeson in later years. Horne’s uncle, Frank S. Horne, was an advisor in the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. Her maternal grandfather was the inventor, Samuel R. Scottron.

At fifteen, Horne left her grandparent’s home in order to live with her mother, Edna, an aspiring actress and former debutante. At sixteen, in an effort to support herself and contribute to the family income, she took a job performing in the chorus at the Cotton Club in Harlem. At the Cotton Club, Horne was influenced by such major figures as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. After a while, she joined the orchestra of famed band leader Noble Sissle and toured the country. Horne first earned fame and recognition with his orchestra. She has credited Sissle’s mentorship as the bedrock on which she built her future career.

In 1942, Lena Horne signed a contract with MGM Studios. She became the first Black actress to sign a long term contract with a major Hollywood studio. Considered too light to appear on screen in Black roles, the studio commissioned Max Factor to create a special make-up, known as “Dark Egyptian,” to darken her skin. Her first major role came in 1942’s Panama Hattie. In the film, she played a singer whose on screen performance had nothing to do with the plot. The reason for this was so the studios could cut out the role (as well as those of other Black performers) when the film was screened in the South, where Black performers could not be portrayed in major roles on screen. She followed Panama Hattie with her two most successful efforts in Hollywood, Cabin the Sky and Stormy Weather, both released in 1943. Both films were major Hollywood musicals that featured all black casts. Stormy Weather gave Lena her signature song. Since that time, the song “Stormy Weather,” has been identified with Horne and has been a hallmark of her long, illustrious career.

Beginning in the 1950s, Horne was blacklisted by Hollywood and the entertainment industry because of her friendship with Paul Robeson, her dedication to progressive politics, and her outspokenness on racial issues. Lena Horne literally embodied the turmoil of racial politics in the United States. Through the Calhoun family, Lena Horne was the great-great grand-daughter of the staunchest pro-slavery senator to sit in the United States senate before the Civil War, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Her passion for justice matched his fervent calls for human bondage. During World War II, while performing on a USO tour, Lena decisively left the front of the room where the white soldiers sat along with several German prisoners of war and moved to the back of the room to sing for the Black soldiers. Horne was one of the earliest participants in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and was a participant in the 1963 March on Washington. She was a close ally of Paul Robeson during his troubles with the United States government and the entertainment industry.

Horne has said, “Whatever petitions I’ve signed or benefits I’ve played I’ve not done because I had any broad or deep political program I was pushing. I had just learned from my father and from my grandmother not to take any nonsense from anybody.”

In 1978, Horne played Glenda the Good Witch in the Diana Ross/Sidney Lumet classic film, The Wiz.

Lena Horne was married twice, once to Louis Jordan Jones and later to MGM band director, Lennie Hayton. She bore two children with Jones, a son Edwin, who died in 1970, and a daughter, the writer and journalist Gail Buckley Lumet. Her granddaughter is the screenwriter Jenny Lumet.

Dear Lord, Lena is Dead

We have lost our champion and one of our greatest pioneers.
RIP Lena, 1917-2010

You've got to move when the Spirit says move,
you've got to move when the Spirit says move,
'cause when the Spirit says move,
You've got to move when the Spirit,
move when the Spirit says move.

You've got to sing when the Spirit says sing,
you've got to sing when the Spirit says sing,
'cause when the Spirit says sing,
You've got to sing when the Spirit,
sing when the Spirit says sing.

You've got to clap when the Spirit says clap,
you've got to clap when the Spirit says clap,
'cause when the Spirit says clap,
You've got to clap when the Spirit,
clap when the Spirit says clap.

You've got to shout when the Spirit says shout,
you've got to shout when the Spirit says shout,
'cause when the Spirit says shout,
You've got to shout when the Spirit,
shout when the Spirit says shout.

You've got to move when the Spirit says move,
you've got to move when the Spirit says move,
'cause when the Spirit says move,
You've got to move when the Spirit,
move when the Spirit says move.

I stand in solidarity with the people of Greece.