Human Interest

Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto who sang opera as well as traditional American songs (including spirituals) and became one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. German-American pianist Franz Rupp was her permanent accompanist throughout most of her career (between 1940 & 1965).

As an African-American performer, Anderson faced much racism, including the 1939 refusal of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) to allow Anderson to sing for an integrated audience in Constitution Hall — resulting in Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt to arrange for the singer to have an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Easter Sunday of 1939. Anderson broke other barriers, including becoming the first black person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

In addition to her work as a performer, Anderson worked for human rights, including as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and participating in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. She did sing at the March on Washington in 1963.

Among the awards Anderson won: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kennedy Center Honors, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Her autobiography, My Lord, What A Morning, was published just after her appearance at the Met.