The career of singer and entertainer Lena Horne has both evolved with and mirrored the times. From the Jim Crow years in the South, to the 1950s McCarthy blacklists, to the Mississippi marches for Civil Rights, Lena was there as a performer and a sympathizer, despite the fact that her career often suffered according to the extent of her involvement. From her beginnings—at the age of 16—as a chorus girl at Harlem's whites-only Cotton Club in the 1930s, Horne developed a reputation as a moderately talented singer with a tendency to coast on beauty and charm. But Horne was troubled by the fact that her celebrity image did not seem to match her personal beliefs. It seemed that every decision she faced about roles to take or songs to sing resonated with symbolic reference to race. Too refined (and "too white") to be...