Marian Anderson – America’s Diva
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was a highly renowned classical singer, a contralto, who performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. She was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera and performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.
The Beginning
Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, to John and Annie Anderson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father ran an ice and coal business, and her mother was a babysitter. She came from a devout Christian family, and her earliest exposure to music was through the Union Baptist Church in South Philadelphia.
Her family recognized her vocal talents and encouraged her to sing and perform. They bought her a piano but could not afford to pay for lessons, so Marian taught herself to play and joined the church choir at the age of six. Her aunt Mary was also a choir singer, and she encouraged her niece by taking her along to performances at church, the YMCA and any other benefits and community events.
As her exposure and interest in music grew, Marian became more confident as a performer. Although she was denied admission to the Philadelphia Music Academy due to racial segregation, this left her undaunted. She auditioned for the noted teacher Giuseppe Boghetti, who was duly impressed, and agreed to take her on as a student. She received immense support from the Philadelphia black community, who raised funds for her to be able to continue her musical education.
The Break
In 1925, she won the first prize in a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic and was given the opportunity to perform in concert with the orchestra. This performance led the way for several others. In 1928, she performed at Carnegie Hall and then decided to embark on a tour of Europe.
European Tours
In 1933, Anderson made her European debut in a concert at Wigmore Hall in London, where she was received enthusiastically. In the first years of the 1930s, free from the racial prejudice prevalent in the US, she toured several countries and partnered with various artists. During a 1935 tour in Salzburg, the conductor Arturo Toscanini told her she had a voice “heard once in a hundred years. She began working with a Russian concert organizer named Sol Hurok, who became her manager for the rest of her career.
American Tours
She returned to the US, where she made her first appearance in New York at Town Hall. Despite being offered several opera roles, she turned them down as she had no training in or interest in acting. However, she did record several opera arias. She spent the next four years performing throughout the US but unfortunately was still denied entry at some venues due to racial barriers.
As a result, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for African American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century.
Marian Anderson and the DAR
In 1939, during the period of racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
In the ensuing furor, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned from the organization. Roosevelt wrote to the DAR: “I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist … You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way, and it seems to me that your organization has failed.”
As the controversy grew, the American press overwhelmingly supported Anderson’s right to sing. The Philadelphia Tribune wrote, “A group of tottering old ladies, who don’t know the difference between patriotism and putridism, have compelled the gracious First Lady to apologize for their national rudeness.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote, “In these days of racial intolerance so crudely expressed in the Third Reich, an action such as the D.A.R.’s ban … seems all the more deplorable.”
The Roosevelt Solution
With the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, President Roosevelt and Walter White, then-executive secretary of the NAACP, Anderson’s manager, Sol Hurok, persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.The result, Marian Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
The performance began with a dignified and stirring rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee“. She sang before an integrated crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. The event was featured in a documentary film, Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert.
In 2001, the documentary film of the concert was chosen for the National Film Registry, and in 2008, NBC radio coverage of the event was selected for the National Recording Registry
And the Beat Goes On
On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition she became:
- Delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee
- Goodwill Ambassador for the United States Department of State, giving concerts all over the world
- Participant in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963
Marian Anderson was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, that include:
- the first Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963,
- the Congressional Gold Medal in 1977,
- the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978,
- the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and
- a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.
Mid-Career
During World War II and the Korean War, Anderson entertained troops in hospitals and at bases. In 1943, she sang at the Constitution Hall, having been invited by the DAR to perform before an integrated audience as part of a benefit for the American Red Cross. She said of the event, “When I finally walked onto the stage of Constitution Hall, I felt no different than I had in other halls. There was no sense of triumph. I felt that it was a beautiful concert hall, and I was very happy to sing there.
Ford 50th Anniversary Show
On June 15, 1953, Anderson headlined The Ford 50th Anniversary Show, which was broadcast live from New York City on both NBC and CBS. Midway through the program, she sang “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands“. She returned to close the program with her rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic“. The program attracted an audience of 60 million viewers. Forty years after the broadcast, television critic Tom Shales recalled the broadcast as both “a landmark in television” and “a milestone in the cultural life of the ’50s”.
The Metropolitan Opera
On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Anderson later said about the evening, “The curtain rose on the second scene and I was there on stage, mixing the witch’s brew. I trembled, and when the audience applauded and applauded before I could sing a note, I felt myself tightening into a knot.” Although she never appeared with the company again, Anderson was named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera company. The following year, her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, was published, becoming a bestseller.
Presidental and Goodwill Ambasador Tours
In 1957, she sang for President Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s inauguration, and toured India and the Far East as a goodwill ambassador through the U.S. State Department and the American National Theater and Academy. She traveled 35,000 miles (56,000 km) in 12 weeks, giving 24 concerts. After that, President Eisenhower appointed her a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The same year, she was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1958, she was officially designated a delegate to the United Nations, a formalization of her role as “goodwill ambassadress” of the U.S.
On January 20, 1961, she sang for President John F. Kennedy‘s inauguration, and in 1962 she performed for President Kennedy and other dignitaries in the East Room of the White House and toured Australia. She was active in supporting the civil rights movement during the 1960s.
She performed benefit concerts in aid of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1963, she sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That same year, she received one of the newly reinstituted Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is awarded for “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the United States, World Peace or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
She also released an album, Snoopycat: The Adventures of Marian Anderson’s Cat Snoopy, which included short stories and songs about her beloved black cat. That same year, Anderson concluded her farewell tour, after which she retired from public performance. The international tour began at Constitution Hall on Saturday October 24, 1964, and ended on April 18, 1965, at Carnegie Hall. In 1965, she christened the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine USS George Washington Carver.
The End
In 1992, Anderson relocated to the home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist, in Portland, Oregon. She died there on April 8, 1993, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 96. She is interred at Eden Cemetery, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania
The Legacy
The life and art of Anderson has been commemorated by writers, artists, and city, state, and national organizations. She was an example and an inspiration to both Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman.
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