Dr. Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins

Not only is she subject to this appalling condition, but she can't have her hair and makeup done in the same room as the white actors who are being treated by union members.

So some of the stories about her being isolated, about her being cold and aloof from other performers and particularly from other black performers was specifically to do with

with the way in which the hairdresser union treated her.

Yeah, the Jim Crow laws were about protecting quote unquote white interests.

They were about restricting interracial marriage.

They were about restricting employment rights post the abolition of slavery.

And they existed well into the 20th century.

Certainly at the beginning, yes.

He is.

Lena Horne marries the MGM arranger and conductor Lenny Hayton.

Initially, they don't get on.

She didn't trust white men, in her words, and he didn't trust singers.

But eventually...

Yeah.

Yeah.

Could have framed that better.

Never mind.

They build this relationship together and eventually in 1947, they get married in Paris.

But their partnership is extremely controversial in public and private because interracial marriage is still illegal in California.

So interracial marriage is made legal in California a year later in 1948.