'She sang with her eyes closed.' The concert at the Lincoln Memorial that changed America.
Marian Anderson performs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter in 1939. By Gillian Brockell Gillian Brockell Staff writer for Retropolis Email Bio Follow April 9 at 7:00 AM As she stepped toward the bouquet of microphones, she closed her eyes — as if to echo the words of the man who had just introduced her by saying, “Genius, like justice, is blind.”The next line she changed; instead of “Of thee I sing,” she sang, “To thee we sing.
In 1935, Anderson returned to the United States as one of the most revered people on the planet. She performed at the White House for first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Just up the road, historically black Howard University started a tradition of hosting her for an annual concert.Each year, the Howard concert got bigger and needed ever-bigger venues. By 1939, organizers asked to rent the 4,000-seat Constitution Hall — the largest auditorium in the District at the time.
“Can you believe it?” Lucy Monroe, a white opera singer, exclaimed to The Washington Post that February. “She’s the greatest singer in the world and they won’t let her sing in the nation’s capital!” When Anderson arrived in Washington the next week, she stayed at a private residence; no hotel in the city would take her.
इंडिया ताज़ा खबर, इंडिया मुख्य बातें
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