Lena Horne, first black actress to have a Broadway theater named in her honor

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By Mark SavageBBC Music Correspondent

Actress Lena Horne has become the first black woman to have a Broadway theater named in her honor.

The theater, on West 47th Street, was built in 1926 and is currently home to the hit British musical Six.

This comes weeks after another Broadway theater was was named after Star Wars actor James Earl Jones.

Horne, who died in 2010, fought racial segregation to win a major contract Hollywood film and later achieved international fame as a singer.

She later became the first black woman to be nominated for a Tony Award, Broadway theater's highest honor, for her lead role in comedy calypso musical Jamaica from 1957.

In 1981, she received a special Tony Award for Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, a solo Broadway show in which she sang and discussed the ups and downs of her life.

“She opened so many doors for us that we people of color can thank her to be a beacon of light,” singer and actress Vanessa Williams told ABC News.