The 41st in the Black Heritage series, this stamp honors the achievements of legendary performer and civil rights activist Lena Horne (1917–2010). Horne began her career as a dancer at Harlem's Cotton Club and later became a featured vocalist with touring orchestras. The rampant racial discrimination she encountered from audiences, hotel and venue managers, and others was so disconcerting that she stopped touring, and in 1941, she made her move to Hollywood. A year later, she signed a contract with MGM—the first black actress to sign a long-term contract with a film studio since 1915—with the stipulation that she would never be asked to take stereotypical roles then available to black actors. Her most famous movie roles were in Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, both released in 1943. Horne was a trailblazer in Hollywood for women of color and used her fame as an entertainer to become an important spokesperson for civil rights. The Lena Horne stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current one-ounce price.