Marian Anderson

Contralto concert and opera singer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She grew up singing in a church choir, and at age 19 began formal study. In 1925 she won a major vocal competition in New York City that gained her a career as a recitalist, but was always constricted by the limitations placed on African-American artists. After a Carnegie Hall recital (1929), she spent some years travelling across Europe and America, finding acclaim as perhaps the greatest living contralto. In 1939 she was refused permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because of her race, and instead sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday before an audience of 75 000. In 1955 she became the first African-American singer to appear at the New York Metropolitan Opera. President Eisenhower made her a delegate to the UN in 1958, and she received many honours and international awards. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, she spent the next two years in a worldwide farewell tour.

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an African American contralto (same range as alto), best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C..

Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black.

She debuted at the New York Philharmonic on August 26, 1925 and scored an immediate success, also with the critics.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall because of her race.

Ironically, neither Eleanor Roosevelt nor her husband, Franklin Roosevelt, had used their influence in a similar way when the school board turned down Anderson.

Finally, at the suggestion of Walter White, the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes organized an open air concert for Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

In 1943, Anderson sang at the invitation of the DAR to an integrated audience at Constitution Hall as part of a benefit for the American Red Cross. By contrast, the federal government continued to bar her from using the high school auditorium in the District of Columbia.

On January 7, 1955, Anderson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. The occasion was bittersweet as Anderson, at age 58, was no longer in her prime vocally.

After an extensive farewell tour, she retired from singing in 1965.

In 1993, Anderson died of natural causes at the age of 96 in Portland, Oregon at the home of her nephew, the conductor James DePreist.

The 1939 documentary film, Marian Anderson: the Lincoln Memorial Concert was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

On January 27, 2005, a commemorative U.S. postage stamp honored Marian Anderson with her image on the 37¢ issue as part of the Black Heritage series. Anderson is also pictured on the $5,000 Series I United States Savings Bond.

Anderson is a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America.