“My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

Today in history… June 30th, 1917, singer and actress Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, NY.

She died last spring at 92 years old.

In 1964, Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez made the below 5-minute film titled Now, about racial discrimination in Civil Rights-era USA, which includes a montage of related photos and newsreel clips, all set to the sounds of Lena Horne’s voice singing the title song.