Lena Horne ’ s Generational Connection to Cuba ’ s Fight to End Slavery
BY DeWAYNE WICKHAM
Lena Horne , a was a legendary singer and actress who , over a seven-decade career , used her stardom to fight civil rights battles – large and small .
As it turns out , her civil rights activism had deep roots .
On February 13 , 1873 , a few dozen Black men and women crowded into the lecture room of the Madison Street Colored Presbyterian Church to hear an appeal from the leaders of a recently organized group that called itself the Cuba Anti-Slavery Committee .
Created just eight years after ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U . S .
Constitution abolished slavery in this country , the group was made up largely of people who had spent years – in some cases decades – trying to end the enslavement of Blacks in the United States .
Having won that fight , in 1872 they turned their attention towards , as the speaker said , “ ameliorating the sad condition of a half million of our brethren now held in slavery in the island of Cuba by Spain .”
The featured speaker that evening was Samuel Raymond Scottron , a prominent community leader from New York City . Scottron was a cofounder and chairman of the Cuban Anti-slavery Committee . He also was Lena Horne ’ s maternal grandfather .
Nine months after speaking at the Baltimore church , Scottron returned to the Maryland city in route to Washington , D . C ., for a meeting with President Ulysses Grant . He was carrying a petition , which The Baltimore Sun reported was “ signed by over six hundred thousand representative colored men in every State of the Union ” that urged President Grant to support a Cuban uprising against Spain , its colonial ruler . n
Samuel R . Scottron
Lena Horne
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