Lena Horne speaking on a panel at Bethune-Cookman College (now University), the school founded by Mary McLeod Bethune in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1964. I don’t know what the topic of the panel was that day, but I do know that Mary McLeod Bethune was a family friend to Ms. Horne. These pictures were taken by Robert Sengstacke, of the Chicago publishing family that founded the Chicago Defender newspaper. Mr. Sengstacke was a student at Bethune-Cookman at the time. Photos: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images.
Remember that beautiful picture of Dorothy Dandridge with her “Tamango” co-star Alex Cressan in Paris? Well, here they are again, very likely at the same party in 1957. Photo: Jean Tesseyre/Paris Match via Getty Images.
Actress Jane White in a 1941 photograph by Carl Van Vechten. A 1944 graduate of Smith College, White was the daughter of Civil Rights icon Walter White. Ms. White began her career on Broadway in 1945 when Paul Robeson helped her get her first role as the lead in Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit,” a story about a doomed interracial love affair. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt praised Ms. White’s work for its “restraint and beauty.” In 1959, Ms. White originated the role of Queen Aggravain (to a young Carol Burnett’s princess) in “Once Upon a Mattress.” For this role, Ms. White was asked to lighten her complexion, lest she “confuse” the audience with her “Mediterranean” looks. She would go on to establish a solid reputation as an actress in Shakespearean and classical roles from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. In 1979, her autobiographical one-woman show, “Jane White, Who?…”, was well received. Ms. White was also a cabaret singer and did work in film and television, including a small part in the film, “Beloved.” In 1992, Ms. White wrote “Life As An Actress: A Mystery Story,” an autobiographical essay for Revealing Women’s Life Stories: Papers from the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Ms. White died of cancer on July 24, 2011 in New York City at the age of 88.
