Frank Smith Horne was an American lyricist, poet, and government official who was an influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
He was a member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Black Cabinet where he served as Assistant Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, National Youth Administration.
[1] He was raised Catholic and had three brothers, Errol, John Burke, and Edwin Fletcher Jr.[2] Horne's father was a private contractor and builder.
[3] In 1938, Mary McLeod Bethune asked Horne to join Roosevelt's Black Cabinet as the Assistant Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, National Youth Administration, and he accepted the position.
Horne also conducted a fight to protect Leon Condol, a disabled World War I veteran.
He was appointed as the Executive Director of the New York City Commission on Intergroup Relations by Mayor Robert Wagner.
Horne began the initial research for the history of Racial Relations Service in 1970 and retired from the HDA in 1972.
[1] On August 19, 1930, Horne married his wife, Frankye Priestly Burn in the Little Church Around the Corner in New York City.