Encouraged by her mother, Horne joined the NAACP at a young age and later the National Council of Negro Women. She refused to perform during WWII for segregated audiences and later joined Eleanor Roosevelt to abolish lynching. In the 1950s, she was black-listed from Hollywood for her progressive views.
Here she is seen discussing a defamation suit against her by a restaurant patron she accused of racism in 1960
Though she had already made her big screen debut, Horne was considered more of a nightclub singer in the early 1940s. She only started to make films in earnest in 1942, when she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She became the first black performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio. Her first film for MGM was 1942’s ‘Panama Hattie’.