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. Later, Horne worked for the Housing and Home Finance Agency and helped to found the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (NCDH). Early life and education Frank Smith Horne was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York by Edwin Fletcher Horne and Cora Calhoun Horne. He was raised Catholic and had three brothers, Errol, John Burke, and Edwin Fletcher Jr. Horne's father was a private contractor and builder. His parents were early members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and well-known members of middle class Black New York. Horne attended the City College of New York, graduating in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science. Horne received an optometry degree from Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology in 1923. In 1932, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master's Degree. Career From 1922 through 1926, Horne practiced optometry through private practice in Chicago and New York City. In 1927, Horne moved to Georgia, where he was the dean and acting president of Fort Valley Normal and Industrial School in Fort Valley, Georgia until 1936. 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. In 1938, Horne began working as the Assistant Director for the United States Housing Authority. Horne was designated a member of the Civil Service Committee of Expert Examiners for the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA) in 1949 and in May 1950, he conducted research into the economic situation of Negro war workers for the HHFA. Horne was a founder of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (NCDH). In October 1953, the Eisenhower Administration made an effort to dismiss Horne, and he was consequently reassigned as the "Assistant to the Administrator" of HHFA, which he considered a demotion. In 1954, Horne's colleague, Edward Rutledge, was accused of being a communist sympathizer, and Horne participated in Rutledge's defense. Horne also conducted a fight to protect Leon Condol, a disabled World War I veteran. Horne and his assistant, Corriene Morrow, were terminated from the HHFA in