Which velvet-voiced black singer/actress of the 1940s caused a stir by refusing to perform for segregated audiences while on a USO tour entertaining WWII troops?

Lena Horne's USO rebellion went beyond her refusal to sing for white-only audiences. After agreeing to perform for a group of black soldiers and white German POWs, she arrived at the hall to see that the black servicemen had been forced to sit at the back, behind the prisoners. Enraged, she marched off stage to the first row of black troops and sang directly to them, with her back turned to the POWs. Horne eventually left the USO in 1945 because of the organization's continuing practice of segregating audiences; afterward​, she financed tours of military camps herself.

Asked by Susanna Henke · Last updated 5 years ago · 5.8K views · SOURCE