Anderson, Marian
1897-1993 · Contribution: 1939-1965
One of the finest contraltos of the twentieth century and a landmark civil-rights figure; the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, whose 1939 open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial—after she was barred from Constitution Hall because of her race—became a defining moment of the era.
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Impact on the world
In 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing to an integrated audience at Washington's Constitution Hall—prompting First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the organization in protest—Anderson performed an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, before an integrated crowd of 75,000 and a national radio audience of millions, opening with 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee'; the event became one of the most significant musical and civil-rights moments of the century. On January 7, 1955, she became the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, as Ulrica in Verdi's 'Un ballo in maschera.' She sang at the inaugurations of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, performed at the 1963 March on Washington, served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963), the Spingarn Medal, a Congressional Gold Medal, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Life & background
Born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia and raised in modest circumstances, Marian Anderson began singing in her Union Baptist Church choir as a young child, where she was known as the 'baby contralto'; denied admission to an all-white Philadelphia music school because of her race, she studied privately, notably with Giuseppe Boghetti, and won an audition to appear with the New York Philharmonic. Achieving fame first in Europe—with a Berlin debut in 1930 and acclaimed tours before Scandinavian and British royalty—she earned praise from conductor Arturo Toscanini, who reportedly said a voice like hers comes 'once in a hundred years,' and made a triumphant New York Town Hall debut in 1935. Her exclusion from Constitution Hall in 1939 and the historic Lincoln Memorial concert that followed transformed her into an international symbol of dignity in the face of segregation; she broke the Metropolitan Opera's color barrier in 1955, served as a goodwill ambassador and United Nations delegate, and sang at presidential inaugurations and the 1963 March on Washington. She gave her farewell performance at Carnegie Hall in 1965, later settling in Connecticut, and died on April 8, 1993, in Portland, Oregon, at age 96.
Sources
- Britannica (Marian Anderson); Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; The Kennedy Center; PBS American Experience
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