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1897 - 1993
American contralto, b. Philadelphia. She was the first African American to be named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, as well as the first black to perform at the White House. Anderson first sang in Philadelphia church choirs, then studied with Giuseppe Boghetti. She began her concert career in 1924 and achieved her first great successes in Europe. Her rich, wide-ranged voice was superbly suited to both opera and the spirituals that she included in her concerts and recordings. In 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) forbade her to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership in protest and sponsored Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1955 she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera Company. She was appointed alternate delegate to the United Nations in 1958 and in 1963 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedomand later the Congressional Gold Medal.
Read her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning (1956).
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Anderson, Marian(b. Philadelphia, Pa., 17 February 1902; d. Portland, Oregon, 8 April 1993) She became recognized as a leading contralto in opera while performing in Europe during the 1930s. In 1939 she became the center of controversy when the Daughters of the American Revolution(DAR) withdrew permission for her to give a concert in their hall upon learning that she was black. Eleanor Roosevelt then resigned from the DAR and arranged for Anderson to perform for 75,000 fans at the Lincoln Memorial. The incident was a powerful symbolic gesture signifying the New Deals willingness to accept blacks as part of the Roosevelt coalition. Anderson was the first black to sing at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera in 1955. She later served as a US delegate to the UN. On 7 December 1973, she received the highest US civilian decoration, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Harold L. Ickes, U.S. secretary of the interior; Marian Anderson, American opera singer
Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial
"In this great auditorium under the sky all of us are free." (Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., April 9, 1939)
Like many African American artists, Marian Anderson, born in Philadelphia in 1902, achieved fame in Europe before doors of opportunity were opened in the U.S. In 1939 when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C., first lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her D.A.R. membership, and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes offered Anderson the use of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. She accepted and more than 75,000 people attended the event. Later in the year, when the NAACP awarded their Spingarn Medalto Anderson, Mrs. Roosevelt made the presentation. Anderson's concert and other assaults against unjust treatment of African American performers ultimately led to the lowering of barriers in the arts.
Marian Anderson, world's greatest contralto, entertains a group of overseas veterans and WACs on the stage of the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium. April 11, 1945. |
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