outspoken supporter of equal rights for African Americans, with her signature song "I'm a Little Blackbird" being a plea for racial equality. During her life she broke many racial barriers. After her death, Duke Ellington memorialized Mills in his composition Black Beauty. Fats Waller also memorialized Mills in a song, Bye Bye Florence, recorded in Camden, New Jersey, on November 1, 1927, featuring Bert Howell on vocals with organ by Waller; Florence was recorded with Juanita Stinette Chappell on vocals and Waller on organ. Other songs recorded the same day include You Live On in Memory and Gone but Not Forgotten—Florence Mills, neither of which were composed by Waller. English composer Constant Lambert - also a friend and champion of Duke Ellington - saw Florence Mills when she performed in Dover Street to Dixie at the London Pavilion in 1923, and again when she visited London a second time in 1926-7 for her show Blackbirds. On her death Lambert immediately wrote the piano piece Elegaic Blues in tribute, orchestrating it the following year. The rising triplet near the beginning (bar 8) is a quote from the fanfare that opened Blackbirds.<ref>[https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2466_GBAJY0554514 Notes to Hyperion recording of Constant Lambert's Elegaic Blues]'', 2005</ref> The Florence Mills Theatre opened on 8 December 1930 at 3511 South Central Avenue, Los Angeles. The 740-seat theater was commissioned by Sam Kramer. On opening night almost 1,000 people lined the street, with 10 police officers holding back the crowds. A residential building at 267 Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem's Sugar Hill neighborhood is named after her. Mills was pictured on a postage stamp issued by the island of Grenada in honor of "The Birth of the Silver Screen"."21 Questions with R2C2H2: Author Bill Egan shines spotlight back on The Blackbird and Jazz Queen of Harlem after 79 years in obscurity...", W.E. A.L.L. B.E., July 16, 2006, A biography by Bill Egan entitled Florence Mills: Harlem: Jazz Queen was published in 2006, and a children's book, Baby Flo: Florence Mills Lights Up the Stage, by Alan Schroeder, was published by Lee and Low in 2012. See also Florence Mills House in New York City at 220 West 135th Street was believed to be where Florence Mills lived from 1910 to 1927. In 1976, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark maintained as a landmark by the National Park Service, but the designation was withdrawn in 2009. Flo-Bert Awards, named