Marian Persevered Over Racism

Anderson, Marian (1897–1993), recitalist, opera singer, and diplomat. Marian Anderson's 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., marked the symbolic beginning of the civil rights movement. Born to a poor family in Philadelphia, Anderson came to public attention in 1924 as the winner of a New York Philharmonic voice competition. Because the color line impeded American bookings, the contralto studied and performed in Europe for several years. In 1935, the impresario Sol Hurok brought Anderson back for a successful New York concert. Thereafter, she toured the United States as an acclaimed soloist and sang at the White House in 1936. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow the singer to perform at Constitution Hall, stating explicitly that their auditorium was available to “white artists only.” First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt publicly resigned from the DAR in protest. African American leaders from Howard University and from the NAACP arranged for Anderson to sing instead at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Broadcast over national radio and attended by 75,000 people, the recital was a symbolic triumph that inspired a generation of African American activists and artists. Never a political activist, Marian Anderson nonetheless continued to overturn racial barriers. In 1955, thirty-one years after her New York debut, she became the first African American to sing a role at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1957, she toured India and Asia as a singer and cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State; later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her an alternate representative to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations. Anderson performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, and in 1963 she returned to the Lincoln Memorial to sing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and gave her farewell concert in 1965.