"Lena not the only one": representations of Lena Horne and Etta Moten in the Kansas City Call, 1941-1945.

" Why should Hollywood writers insist that Miss [Lena] Horne is the only good looking [black] woman in the U.S.A. who can act? " posed a wartime issue of The Call (Kansas City, Missouri). 1 Writers at The Call, the regional black newspaper, understood that this Hollywood tokenism, which framed Horne as exceptional, perpetuated white supremacy by substituting symbolic equality for tangible civil rights. 2 Throughout the war years, The Call challenged white popular culture's representation of Lena Horne as unique, proclaiming, " Lena Not the Only One. " 3 First, with its weekly " Stage and Screen " coverage of black female performers, the newspaper asserted that " there are thousands of beautiful young Negro girls " with talent. 4 Second, The Call called attention to its own extraordinary hometown celebrity, Kansas-City-born Etta Moten, star of a Porgy and Bess revival. By focusing on Moten, The Call echoed a goal of the national civil rights movement, as set forth by NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White and symbolized by Horne: to expand African Americans' role in the entertainment industry and alter conventional images of African Americans. The Call, by presenting Etta Moten as a " home-town " counterpart to Horne, localized a national program of uplift and community formation through a specific role model that represented a new type of black female respectability—the glamorous middle-class entertainer. 5 Moreover, The Call's representation of Horne and especially its portrayal of Moten, as " the gal from Kansas City " who " makes good, " reflect the special character of Kansas City, Missouri, as well as editor