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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Ruby Bridges." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

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Born: February 27, 1897
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: April 8, 1993
Portland, Oregon
African American opera singer

Marian Anderson is remembered as one of the best American contraltos (women with lower singing voices) of all time. She was the first African American singer to perform at the White House and the first African American to sing with New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Anderson's early years

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 27, 1897. She was educated in the public schools. She displayed a remarkable skill for singing when she was very young, and she loved singing for her church choir. When she could not afford singing lessons, her fellow choir members raised the money that allowed her to study with a famous singing teacher.

When Anderson was twenty-three years old, she entered a competition and won first place over three hundred other singers. The

prize was the opportunity to sing with the New York Philharmonic orchestra. Further sponsorships enabled her to continue her studies in both the United States and in Europe.

Following Anderson's debuts (first performances on stage in a particular city) in Berlin, Germany, in 1930 and London, England, in 1932, she performed in Scandinavia (northern Europe), South America, and the Soviet Union. In Salzburg, Austria, she gave a sensational performance. The famous conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) was in the audience. After hearing her sing, Toscanini said she had "a voice heard but once in a century."

Return to the United States

At the end of Anderson's European tour, she was signed to a contract for fifteen concerts in the United States. On December 30, 1935, she opened her American tour at New York's Town Hall. She performed pieces by European classical composers as well as several African American spirituals (traditional religious songs). The performance was a great success. Critics welcomed her as a "new high priestess of song." In the words of a writer for the New York Times, the concert established her as "one of the great singers of our time."

Over the next several years Anderson sang for U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) at the White House and for Great Britain's King George VI (1895-1952) during his 1939 visit to the United States. She made several cross-country tours and soon was booking engagements (scheduling jobs) two years in advance. In one year she traveled twenty-six thousand miles. It was the longest tour in concert history. She gave seventy concerts in five months. After World War II (1939-45; a war fought between Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States against Germany, Italy, and Japan) ended, she performed in major European cities again. By 1950 it was estimated that she had performed before nearly four million listeners.

Victory over racial discrimination

Anderson was a pioneer in winning recognition at home and abroad for African American artists. In 1939 an incident involving the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) helped focus public attention on racism. The DAR denied Anderson use of their Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., for an April concert. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest and had the U.S. government allow Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial. Her concert there, on Easter morning, drew a live audience of seventy-five thousand, and millions more heard it over the radio.

In 1948 Anderson underwent a dangerous throat operation for a growth that threatened to damage her voice. For two months she was not permitted to use her voice. She was not sure if she would ever be able to sing again. When she was finally allowed to rehearse, her voice returned free of damage. Following her recovery, Anderson made her first post-World War II tour of Europe, including stops in Scandinavia, Paris (France), London (England), Antwerp (Belgium), Zurich (Switzerland), and Geneva (Switzerland).

Operatic debut

In 1955, and again in 1956, Anderson sang in an opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. This was the first time an African American had sung with the Metropolitan since it opened in 1883. Over the years Anderson continued to add to her accomplishments. She sang at the presidential inaugurations of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) and John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). In 1957 Anderson made a concert tour of India and the Far East for the U.S. State Department. In 1958 President Eisenhower appointed her a delegate (representative) to the Thirteenth General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). She was awarded the UN Peace Prize in 1977. Anderson gave her farewell concert (last public performance) at Carnegie Hall in New York on Easter Sunday in 1965. She died on April 8, 1993, in Portland, Oregon.

A New York Times music critic wrote about Anderson this way: "Those who remember her at her height ... can never forget that big resonant voice, with those low notes almost visceral [having to do with basic emotions] in nature, and with that easy, unforced ascent to the top register. A natural voice, a hauntingly colorful one, it was one of the vocal phenomena [rare event] of its time."

For More Information

Broadwater, Andrea. Marian Anderson: Singer and Humanitarian. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2000.

Keiler, Allan. Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey. New York: Scribner, 2000.

Tedards, Anne. Marian Anderson. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

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Born: February 27, 1897 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Died: April 8, 1993 Portland, Oregon African American opera singer Marian Anderson is remembered as one of the best American contraltos (women with lower singing voices) of all time. She was the first African American singer to perform at the White House and the first African American to sing with New York's Metropolitan Opera.

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Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 - April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965.

Anderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century.

Marian was the eldest of the three Anderson children. Her two sisters, Alyse (1899-1965) and Ethel (1902-90), also became singers. Ethel married James DePreist and their son James Anderson DePreist was a noted conductor.

Anderson's parents were both devout Christians and the whole family was active in the Union Baptist Church. Marian's aunt Mary, her father's sister, was active in the church's musical life and convinced her niece to join the junior church choir at the age of six. Marian performed solos and duets, often with her aunt. Aunt Mary took Marian to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit concerts, and other community music events throughout the city. Anderson credited her aunt's influence as the reason she pursued her singing career.

From the age of six, Marian started to sing for local functions where she was often paid 25 or 50 cents for singing a few songs. As she got into her early teens, she began to make as much as four or five dollars for singing, a considerable sum for the early 20th century. At the age of 10, Marian joined the People's Chorus of Philadelphia under the direction of a singer Emma Azalia Hackley, where she was often a soloist.

When Anderson was 12, her father received a head injury while working at the Reading Terminal before Christmas 1909. Soon afterwards her father died, following heart failure. He was 37 years old. Marian and her family moved into the home of her father's parents, Benjamin and Isabella Anderson. Her grandfather had been born a slave and had been emancipated in the 1860s. He relocated to South Philadelphia, the first of his family to do so. When Anderson moved into his home, the two became very close, but he died just a year after the family moved in.

Anderson attended Stanton Grammar School. She graduated in 1912. Her family could not pay for any music lessons or high school. Anderson continued to perform wherever she could and learn from anyone who was willing to teach her.

As a teenager, she remained active in her church's musical activities and got involved in the adult choir. She became a member of the Baptists' Young People's Union and the Camp Fire Girls, which provided her with some limited musical opportunities. Eventually, the People's Chorus of Philadelphia and the pastor of her church, Reverend Wesley Parks, along with other leaders of the black community, raised the money she needed to get singing lessons with Mary Saunders Patterson and to attend South Philadelphia High School, from which she graduated in 1921.

After high school, Anderson applied to an all-white music school, the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now University of the Arts School of Music), but was turned away because she was black. The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We don't take colored" when she tried to apply.

Anderson went on to study privately in her native city, first with Agnes Reifsnyder, then Giuseppe Boghetti. She got financial support from the Philadelphia black community. She met Boghetti through the principal of her high school. Anderson auditioned for him by singing "Deep River"; he was immediately brought to tears. Boghetti scheduled a recital of English, Russian, Italian and German music at The Town Hall in New York City in April 1924; it took place in an almost empty hall and received poor reviews.

In 1923 she made two recordings, "Deep River" and "My Way's Cloudy" for the Victor company.

Early career

In 1925, Anderson got her first big break at a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. As the winner, she got to perform in concert with the orchestra on August 26, 1925. Her performance was immediate success with both the audience and music critics. Anderson continued her studies with Frank La Forge in New York. During this time, Arthur Judson became her manager. They met through the New York Philharmonic. Over the next several years, she made a number of concert appearances in the United States, but racial prejudice prevented her career from gaining momentum. Her first performance at Carnegie Hall was in 1928.

Rosenwald Fund

European tours

Anderson went to Europe, where she spent a number of months studying with Sara Charles-Cahier. After that, she emberked on a highly successful European singing tour. In the summer of 1930, she went to Scandinavia, where she met the Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen, who became her regular accompanist and her vocal coach for many years.

She also met Jean Sibelius after he had heard her in a concert in Helsinki. Moved by her performance, Sibelius invited them to his home and asked his wife to bring champagne in place of the traditional coffee. Sibelius complimented Anderson on her performance; he felt that she had been able to penetrate the Nordic soul. The two struck up an immediate friendship, which further blossomed into a professional partnership, and for many years Sibelius altered and composed songs for Anderson.

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, she toured Europe, where she did not encounter the prejudices she had experienced in America. Anderson, accompanied by Vehanen, continued to tour throughout Europe during the mid-1930s. Before going back to Scandinavia, where fans had "Marian fever", she performed in Russia and the major cities of Eastern Europe. She quickly became a favorite of many conductors and composers of major European orchestras. During a 1935 tour in Salzburg, the conductor Arturo Toscanini told her she had a voice "heard once in a hundred years."

American tours

1939 Lincoln Memorial concert

In 1939 during the era 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. The incident placed Anderson in the spotlight of the international community on a level unusual for a classical musician. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the Lincoln Memorial steps in the capital. The event was featured in a documentary film. She sang before an integrated crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions.

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." Author Zora Neale Hurston criticized Eleanor Roosevelt's public silence about the similar decision by the District of Columbia Board of Education.

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." In contrast, the District of Columbia Board of Education continued to bar her from using the high school auditorium in the District of Columbia.

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. At the invitation of director Rudolf Bing, she sang the part of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (opposite Zinka Milanov, then Herva Nelli, as Amelia). 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, and became a bestseller.

Presidential inaugurations and goodwill ambassador tours

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.

Although Anderson retired from singing in 1965, she continued to appear publicly. She often narrated Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, with her nephew James DePriest conducting. In 1976, Copland conducted a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga. Her achievements were recognized with many honors, including the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit in 1973; the United Nations Peace Prize, New York City's Handel Medallion, and the Congressional Gold Medal, all in 1977; Kennedy Center Honors in 1978; the George Peabody Medal in 1981; the National Medal of Arts in 1986; and a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991. A half-ounce gold commemorative medal was embossed with her portrait by the United States Treasury Department in 1980. Four years later, she was the first person to be honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award of the City of New York. She was awarded 24 honorary doctoral degrees, by Howard University, Temple University, Smith College and many other colleges and universities.

Personal life

On July 17, 1943, Anderson became the second wife of architect Orpheus H. "King" Fisher (1900-1986) in Bethel, Connecticut. Fisher had asked her to marry him when they were teenagers, but she declined at that time because she feared it would have forestalled her music career. The wedding was a private ceremony performed by United Methodist pastor Rev. Jack Grenfell and was the subject of a short story titled "The 'Inside' Story," written by Rev. Grenfell's wife, Dr. Clarine Coffin Grenfell, in her book Women My Husband Married, including Marian Anderson. According to Dr. Grenfell, the wedding was originally supposed to take place in the parsonage, but because of a bake sale on the lawn of the Bethel United Methodist Church, the ceremony was moved at the last minute to the Elmwood Chapel, on the site of the Elmwood Cemetery in Bethel, in order to keep the event private.

By this marriage she gained a stepson, James Fisher, from her husband's previous marriage to Ida Gould, a white woman.

In 1940, seeking a retreat away from the public eye, Anderson and Fisher purchased a three-story Victorian farmhouse on a 100-acre (0.40 km ²) farm in Danbury, Connecticut, after an exhaustive search throughout New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Through the years, he built many structures on the property, including an acoustic rehearsal studio he designed for his wife. The property remained Anderson's home for almost 50 years.

From 1943, she resided at the farm that Orpheus had named Marianna Farm. The farm was on Joe's Hill Road, in the Mill Plain section of western Danbury. She constructed a three-bedroom ranch house as a residence, and she used a separate one-room structure as her studio. In 1996, the farm was named one of 60 sites on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. The studio was moved to downtown Danbury as the Marian Anderson studio.

As a town resident, Anderson wished to live as normally as possible, declining offers to be treated in restaurants and stores as a celebrity. She was known to visit the Danbury State Fair. She sang at the city hall on the occasion of the lighting of Christmas ornaments. She gave a concert at the Danbury High School. She served on the board of the Danbury Music Center and supported the Charles Ives Center for the Arts and the Danbury Chapter of the NAACP.

In 1986, Orpheus Fisher died after 43 years of marriage. Anderson remained in residence at Marianna Farm until 1992, one year before her death. Although the property was sold to developers, various preservationists as well as the City of Danbury fought to protect Anderson's studio. Their efforts proved successful, and the Danbury Museum and Historical Society received a grant from the state of Connecticut, relocated and restored the structure, and opened it to the public in 2004. In addition to seeing the studio, visitors can see photographs and memorabilia from milestones in Anderson's career.

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.

Marian Anderson quotes

"When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless."

"Prejudice is like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating."

"None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath."

"When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether."

Interesting facts about Marian Anderson

Awards and honors

The life and art of Anderson has been commemorated by writers, artists, and city, state, and national organizations. The following is a selected list:

She was an example and an inspiration to both Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman.

1948: The anthology radio drama Destination Freedom recapped her earlier life in the episode "Choir Girl from Philadelphia".

1976: Among the historical figures featured in the artwork Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday by Stanley Meltzoff for Bell System.

1999: A one-act musical play entitled My Lord, What a Morning: The Marian Anderson Story was produced by the Kennedy Center. The musical took its title from Anderson's memoir, published by Viking in 1956.

2001: The 1939 documentary film, Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

2002: Molefi Kete Asante included Anderson in his book,100 Greatest African Americans.

2005: U.S. postage stamp honored Anderson as part of the Black Heritage series. Anderson is also pictured on the US$5,000 Series I United States Savings Bond.

2008: A BBC Radio 4 documentary, Freedom Song produced by Ekene Akalawu, was first broadcast on January 24, 2008.

2011: The Marian Anderson House, in Philadelphia, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

2016: The Union Baptist Church (Built 1915-16), 1910 Fitzwater Street, Philadelphia, PA, was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, under Criteria A and J, the former being for its association with Marian Anderson, providing regulatory protection to the building from alteration and demolition.

2016: Jack Lew announced that Anderson would appear along with Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. on the back of the redesigned US$5 bill scheduled to be unveiled in the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of 19th Amendment of the Constitution that granted women in America the right to vote.

2021: Anderson's life and the 1939 Constitution Hall controversy and her subsequent concert at the Lincoln Memorial were the subject of a documentary, Voice of Freedom, that aired as an episode of American Experience on PBS.

Marian Anderson Award

The Marian Anderson Award was established in 1943 by Anderson after she was awarded the $25,000 from The Philadelphia Award in 1940 by the city of Philadelphia. Anderson used the award money to establish a singing competition to help support young singers. The prize fund was exhausted in due course and disbanded in 1976. In 1990, the award was re-established and has dispensed $25,000 annually. In 1998, the Marian Anderson Award prize money was restructured to be given to an established artist, not necessarily a singer, who exhibits leadership in a humanitarian area.

In Spanish: Marian Anderson para niños

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From the Smithsonian Magazine (written for adults so get help if needed!)

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From the Smithsonian Magazine (written for adults so get help if needed!)

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Conductor Arturo Toscanini dubbed her a once-in-a-hundred years talent, and yet music schools in her home town of Philadelphia would not entertain her as a student, and she did not find true fame until she left Jim Crow America behind and went to Europe.

Even at the height of her fame, African-American contralto singer Marian Anderson encountered barriers erected solely because of the color of her skin. And yet, she kept pursuing her love, with the support of her church and community, a launch to fame via an adoring European audience, and her refusal to bow down to American segregationist policies.

An exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery traces the trajectory of Anderson's life, from young ingenue to European concert hall star to civil rights pioneer to cultural icon.

But, says curator Leslie Ureña, Anderson "always grappled with this label-what it means to be an iconic symbol." Through its photographs, paintings and memorabilia, "One Life: Marian Anderson" attempts to show that tension-the exceedingly private and humble Anderson versus the worldwide phenom.

If known at all today, Anderson may be remembered by many as a figure in the Civil Rights Movement. At her peak, however, she "was the Beyonce of her day," says Ureña.

Soon, Anderson will be back in the limelight and known more fully again-she is the subject of a documentary by a Philadelphia-based filmmaker that will make the rounds this fall, and in 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that her historic performance at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 willappear on the back of the $5 bill starting sometime in the 2020s.

Bill Nicoletti said he made Once in a Hundred Years: The Life and Legacy of Marian Anderson to showcase her indomitable spirit. All Philadelphians are familiar with the Rocky film franchise and its fairy-tale-like story of the hometown boxer's rise from the ashes, again and again. But, says Nicoletti, Anderson "is the real Rocky story."

"She continued to get knocked down over and over and over and she just persevered," he says.

Anderson, born in 1897, spent her formative years in a south Philadelphia neighborhood near the center of black intellectual and cultural life-a community that eventually would help the budding young artist. She began singing in the Union Baptist Church choir at age 6-encouraged by an aunt who had noticed her talent. Starting at that tender age, Anderson delivered performances that inspired and impressed. Within a few years, she was a member of the People's Choir, taking on solos and earning money. The income-as much as $5 a show-was particularly important after her father, an ice and coal seller at Reading Market, died after suffering an injury while on the job.

At 12, Anderson became a family breadwinner. But she could not have gone to high school without the financial support of her church. After graduation, Anderson sought to apply to the Philadelphia Music Academy, but was told "we don't take colored people," says Ureña.

Eventually, she was connected with Giuseppe Boghetti, a Philadelphia-area opera teacher who was not afraid to take an African-American student under his wing.

In 1925-when Anderson was 28-Boghetti encouraged her to enter a New York Philharmonic competition. Facing off against 300 other aspiring singers, Anderson won and was awarded a solo performance at Lewisohn Stadium, before a crowd of 7,500. It was transformational, says Ureña. A Kubey-Rembrandt Studio print of Anderson from that year shows her elegantly posed in partial profile, wearing a fashionable sheath dress, and smiling for the camera. But, like many other African-American artists at the time, Anderson felt she was not getting her proper due. She left for Europe and starting in London, she made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1928.

Though Anderson went back to the states and performed some that year, she was able to win a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, established by a wealthy Chicago philanthropist who gave millions to African-American schools and causes. The money helped pay for a move to Berlin in 1930 and a deeper study of German and lieder music.

Soon, "Marian Mania" broke out all over Europe, but in particular in Scandinavia. She soloed for King Gustav of Sweden and King Christian of Denmark, adding fuel to the growing fire of desire for her performances, which covered everything from German lieder, to Italian opera, to Russian folk songs, to traditional African-American spirituals.

A studio in Copenhagen used Anderson's face-taken with a camera that could capture 48 photographs on one negative-as a marketing vehicle, plastering the multiple images over the front and back of one of its advertising brochures.

In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism began casting a shadow over Anderson's bookings, but not before she got to perform at the 1935 Salzburg Festival in Austria.

Anderson headed back to the U.S., her fame now preceding her. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor invited her to perform at the White House in 1936, making her the first African-American to do so.

Despite her global acclaim, she was forced to ride in segregated train cars and perform for Whites-only audiences. At one point, she put a clause in her contract that she would only play at integrated venues, but even then, at a Miami concert, the local police were a heavy presence, says Ureña.

In 1937, no hotel in Princeton would house her after her performance at the university. Albert Einstein-who would become a friend for life- invited her to stay, which was the first of many occasions that Anderson would overnight with the physicist and his wife.

Meanwhile, Howard University in Washington, DC was hoping to host a concert series that would feature Anderson and was looking for a venue large enough to accommodate her adoring fans. The university turned to Constitution Hall, owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The D.A.R., however, had a strict policy against allowing black performers and turned Howard down, setting off a national firestorm. Anderson said nothing, even when repeatedly prompted by reporters for comment.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a D.A.R. member, resigned in protest and formed a committee to find a new venue. Through her husband's administration, she found a stage for Anderson that could not have been more symbolic-the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. On Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, as Interior Secretary Harold Ickes introduced her, he intoned, "Genius draws no color lines."

Anderson, then 42, trilled out "My Country Tis of Thee (America)," sending shivers up the spines of the 75,000-black and white-audience members who filled the grassy expanses on the National Mall. Photographer Robert Scurlock captured Anderson, eyes closed in concentration, standing before a half-dozen or more microphones, wrapped in a full-length mink coat. In another view, Arthur Ellis points his camera up at Anderson from a distance; the angle makes it seem like Abraham Lincoln is peering over her left shoulder.

The 25-minute concert is often viewed as one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement, says Ureña.

Later the same year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) invited Anderson to its annual convention in Richmond, Virginia to accept its highest honor-the Spingarn Medal. Eleanor Roosevelt was there to drape the medal around Anderson's neck-a moment captured by an unknown photographer who made it appear as if the two tall, be-hatted women were mirror images.

Though she was viewed as a role model, "she was an understated activist," says Nicoletti.

Ureña says Anderson wanted the focus to be on the music-not her politics. Yet she continued to break barriers.

By the mid-1940s, Anderson had performed in halls all over the globe-including France, England, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, El Salvador and Russia. At one point, she had 60 performances in seven months. She was traveling some 20,000 to 30,000 miles a year.

Her globe-trotting exploits were commemorated in a folksy 1945 painting with Anderson ascendant at the center, her pianist over her left shoulder, with various flags and facades representing the places she had made her mark, scattered around her. The painting is by William H. Johnson, a black American artist who also had gone to Europe to make the most of his artistic gifts, free of prejudice.

In the late 1940s, she returned to Lewisohn Stadium in New York City, this time with the famed pianist Leonard Bernstein to perform before a crowd of 20,000. Vogue's Irving Penn photographed Anderson in 1948-in a full, black, lacy, diva-like gown-her status escalated ever higher.

Anderson became the first black soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, playing Ulrica in Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera. A portrait of her in character by Richard Avedon shows a powerful, sensual woman, eyes closed, lips pursed in song, hair flowing freely.

She went on to sing at the inaugurations of two presidents-Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, Jr., the first black woman to do so-and was named both a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. State Department and a delegate to the United Nations.

Anderson quietly supported many civil rights causes, and also sang at the 1963 March on Washington-where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

But Anderson also strove to be seen as a human being.

A kiosk at the Portrait Gallery exhibition features a clip from a short promotional video that was designed to show viewers at the time that Anderson was just like everyone else.

It was filmed at her home, Marianna Farm, in Danbury, Connecticut. The film actually reveals a Renaissance woman. She tends a garden and cavorts with her dogs. She reupholsters a chair, and mends her own clothes, deftly using a sewing machine. The singer, who brought a camera with her on every tour, is shown developing prints in her home darkroom.

By the time of her death in 1993, she had received multiple honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Congressional Gold Medal, Kennedy Center Honors, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She had performed at every major concert hall in America. And she had been a board member of Carnegie Hall for seven decades-firmly placing her in the pantheon of American music.
"One Life: Marian Anderson," curated by Leslie Ureña, is on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. through May 17, 2020. It coincides with two Institution-wide initiatives organized by the Smithsonian, including the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, "Because of Her Story," and the 2019 celebration of the Smithsonian's Year of Music.

About Alicia Ault

Alicia Ault is a Washington, DC-based journalist whose work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post and Wired. When not chasing down a story from our nation's capital, she takes in the food, music and culture of southwest Louisiana from the peaceful perch of her part-time New Orleans home.

Read more from this author | Follow @aliciaault

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once in a hundred years: the life and legacy of marian anderson

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Marian Anderson Became an Iconic Symbol for Equality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Conductor Arturo Toscanini dubbed her a once-in-a-hundred years talent, and yet music schools in her home town of Philadelphia would not entertain her as a student, and she did not find true fame until she left Jim Crow America behind and went to Europe.

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Biography from the Marian Anderson Museum

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Biography from the Marian Anderson Museum

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DATE OF BIRTH: February 27, 1897 - according to her birth certificate. PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia FAMILY BACKGROUND: Marian Anderson was the oldest of three daughters...

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A brief history of the choreographer, his company and his legacy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the last great frontier was the North Pole. Though many men had tried to reach it, all of them had failed. That is, until the expedition that was led by Robert Peary.

This expedition would have failed too, if not for Peary's companion Matthew Henson. Let's explore this brave man's life and how he helped to explore the great unknown.

Henson was born on August 8, 1866, in Maryland. His parents were poor freeborn sharecroppers. Both of his parents died when he was young. Henson then had to live with various family members in Washington D.C.

Henson was not happy with his living situation and ran away from home when he was eleven years old. He moved in with a neighbor woman who took pity on him and took care of him. When he was twelve years old, he got a job as a cabin boy on a ship.

The captain of the ship taught Henson to read, write, and how to navigate. After the captain died, Henson went to work as a store clerk. It was there that he met Peary. Peary, who was a navy officer and explorer, hired Henson to join him on his expeditions.

A Brave Explorer

Perry and Henson went on multiple expeditions. Their very first journey together took them to Nicaragua in 1887. Once they returned from this journey, Henson married Eva Flint. Shortly after the wedding, Peary and Henson went forth again, this time to Greenland.

This journey proved influential in Henson's life, as he embraced the Eskimo culture. He learned the language and the Inuit's Arctic survival methods.

The team again returned to Greenland in 1893. They wanted to chart the entire ice cap. This trip almost proved disastrous, as they almost ran out of food and supplies.

They actually had to eat all but one of their sled dogs. They would return again in 1896 and 97. It was at this time that Henson and his wife Eva divorced. His frequent journeys caused this to happen.

Peary and Henson then made multiple attempts at reaching the North Pole. They were turned back many times, including in 1902 when several members of their party died. Then in 1905, melting sea ice blocked their progress and forced them to turn back.

The team's final, and ultimately successful, try at reaching the North Pole began in 1908. Peary and Henson kept pushing and finally, on April 6, 1909, they reached the North Pole. They did this with four Inuits and 40 dogs.

Though Henson was an indispensable member of the team, he was largely overlooked while Peary got all of the credit. Henson went on to work as a clerk in a New York City federal customs house for three decades.

In 1912 he released his memoirs of his journeys and in 1937, finally received the acknowledgment he deserved. He was accepted into the Explorers Club in New York City as an honorary member.

Then in 1944, he, and the other members of the team received a Congressional Medal.

Matthew Henson died on March 9, 1955, at the age of 89. He was originally buried in New York City. However, in 1987 his remains were moved to Arlington National Cemetery.

A New Frontier

Matthew Henson was a brave explorer who journeyed all over the world. He spent many years and several expeditions trying to reach the North Pole with Robert Peary. After many years of trying, the pair finally reached it in 1909.

Henson is thought to be the first man to actually reach the North Pole. He was an indispensable member of the team, and Robert Peary wrote that he could not have made the journey without Henson.

Matthew Henson is a true inspiration of how far bravery and determination can take you in life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the last great frontier was the North Pole. Though many men had tried to reach it, all of them had failed. That is, until the expedition that was led by Robert Peary. This expedition would have failed too, if not for Peary's companion Matthew Henson.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As an artist, poet, and teacher, Margaret Burroughs wore many hats to make her creative mark on the world. But as a Chicagoan, Burroughs left a lasting legacy that can still be found in the city today.

Born in 1915 in Louisiana, Margaret Burroughs moved with her family to Chicago in 1920 as part of the Great Migration - a decades-long movement of Black families from the South to northern and western cities. According to the biography on her website, Burroughs attended Englewood High School, where she was classmates with the influential poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

Burroughs went on to get her teaching certificate in 1937, and two years later, she helped found the South Side Community Arts Center (SSCAC). The center started as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). One of the projects within the WPA promoted arts and culture by paying artists, musicians, writers, and other creatives, including a group of Black artists working in Chicago - and Burroughs was among them.

"We had no place to exhibit, so some of us got together and we decided what we would do was try to get a place," Burroughs told WTTW in 2010 as part of the documentary DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis. "We decided that we needed to get the money to buy the building, so I and quite a few of the other young artists ... we got collection cans."

After fundraising, sometimes just dimes at a time, Burroughs and other Black artists in Chicago were able to purchase a mansion at 3821 South Michigan Avenue. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the dedication of the building in 1941. According to the SSCAC, the center is the "only African American Art Center of its kind opened under the WPA Initiative to remain continuously open."

Burroughs also dedicated her life to education, both of herself and others. She obtained a degree in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1946, and two years later she got a Master's there, too. She taught at DuSable High School in Bronzeville from 1946 until 1969, when she became a professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College in Englewood. Another one of Burroughs' many hats? Mayor Harold Washington appointed her to serve as the Chicago Park District commissioner in 1985, a position she held until 2010.

While she was working as a teacher, artist, and poet, Burroughs and her husband Charles founded what would ultimately become the DuSable Museum of African American History. Initially called the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art, the museum was founded in Burroughs' own living room in 1961 to study and preserve Black culture that was often ignored by other museums.

In 1968, the museum was renamed to honor Jean Baptise Point du Sable, a Black man who was the first permanent, non-native settler of Chicago. In 1973, the museum moved into a vacant park administration building in Washington Park, where it has been ever since. Today, it is the oldest African American history and culture museum in the United States.

Beyond her role in establishing cultural institutions in Chicago, Burroughs was first an artist and a poet, who often exhibited at the SSCAC that she helped found. According to the Poetry Foundation, Burroughs created both sculptures and paintings. She is mostly known for her work as a printmaker using linoleum block prints, creating images of both famous and everyday Black individuals. Some of her art is held by the Art Institute.

As a poet, one of her most well known works is "What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black." Written in 1963, the poem is written from the perspective of a Black mother expressing her fears of raising her children in a white world. Burroughs also penned "Chicago, I Love You!" - an ode to the city that celebrates both its gems and its imperfections. (Watch Burroughs read an excerpt from that poem above.) As with so much of her life and work, she gave her poetry to Chicago and its people, donating her drafts to the Chicago Public Library's lauded Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.

Burroughs died in 2010, but the institutions she created are still important landmarks on Chicago's South Side - literally. SSCAC became an official Chicago historic landmark in 1994, and Burroughs' home at 3806 South Michigan Avenue - the first home for the DuSable Museum - is also a Chicago historic landmark.

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"Chicago, I Love You!" Margaret Burroughs' Creative Legacy in Chicago

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As an artist, poet, and teacher, Margaret Burroughs wore many hats to make her creative mark on the world. But as a Chicagoan, Burroughs left a lasting legacy that can still be found in the city today.

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Learn who Nelson Mandela was and how he made a difference in the lives of the people of South Africa and around the world.

AGES

AR LEVEL

READ TIME

LEXILE© MEASURE

PAGES

LANGUAGE

PUBLISHER

ISBN

48

English

Core Library an imprint of ABDO Publishing (Unlimited)

9781629692692

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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Black History Project - A Legacy of Changemakers

Part 1 - Choose an African American Changemaker that you want to learn more about.

Part 2 - Fill in the Changemaker Packet (biography and a script) for your changemaker.  Record a video of yourself dressed up as your changemaker and telling us about his or her life.  You are recording your video on Seesaw.

Part 3 - Choose a portrait of your changemaker that speaks to you.

Where can I find information on African American Changemakers? :

Black History Project Padlet
https://padlet.com/marleaseb/glzin1rwbsnl14qx

The Undefeated 44 - https://theundefeated.com/features/the-undefeated-44-most-influential-black-americans-in-history/#introduction

Biography.com, search Black History
https://www.biography.com/tag/black-history

Interactive Map - Where was my Changemaker Born?
https://www.biography.com/page/african-american-birthplaces-interactive-map

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Black History Project - Changemaker Packet

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Dr. Roger Arliner Young - African American Trailblazers

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For the past 30 years, kids (and more than a few adults) around the world have busted out their Super Soakers and conquered their neighborhood water gun fights. The high-power water bazooka is an impressive piece of technology in its own right, but its origin and legacy make it a piece of living history.

While the Super Soaker first hit toy store shelves in 1990, when it was known as the Power Drencher, it was actually first conceived in 1982, in the bathroom and basement of a NASA engineer named Lonnie Johnson. His story is the culmination of intelligence and ambition, as well as remarkable success in the face of systemic racism.

Johnson proved his scientific prowess early on

Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1949, Johnson was naturally curious and his interest in science and technology was fostered by his father, an Army base truck driver, who taught him how electric currents work and how to repair household appliances.

"My parents' support was a big deal," he once told the Smithsonian Institute. "I played with rockets when I was a kid. One day I was making some rocket fuel on top of the stove. It ignited and could have nearly burned the house down. Instead [of yelling] my parents got me a hot plate and said 'do that kind of stuff outside.'"

Johnson was known as "The Professor" amongst his friends thanks to his uncanny knowledge of mechanical technology and unending experimentation. Together they built engines out of scrap parts and stuck them atop go-karts, while Johnson spent countless hours at home learning the basics of robotics.

By high school, Johnson had moved on to building his own robot, and in his senior year, he entered his creation, named Linex, into a science fair hosted by the University of Alabama's Junior Engineering Technical Society. "He was three-and-a-half-feet (1m) tall, had shoulders that could rotate and two arms with elbows and wrists that swiveled," Johnson later remembered. "He could pivot and move around on wheels."

This was 1968, in an Alabama still marked by segregation and open racism in all aspects of life. Johnson attended a segregated high school and was the only Black entrant into the University of Alabama's science fair. Linex was so impressive that they could not deny Johnson first place, a major accomplishment that also taught him something of a painful lesson: Despite creating an incredible robot out of scrap metal, no one from the University of Alabama showed interest in the academic future of such an obviously talented young scientist.

Instead, Johnson attended the famed Tuskegee University, from which he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and a master's in nuclear engineering, finishing up his schooling in 1975. Then it was on to working for the Air Force to fulfill his end of the ROTC scholarship that the military branch had underwritten for his schooling. While with the Air Force, he got his first patent, for an invention he called the "Digital Distance Measuring Instrument." Simply put, it was an early version of DVD-reading technology, an innovation he later called "the big fish that got away" because he did not pursue it further.

Fortunately, it was just the beginning of Johnson's career, so any regrets would be dwarfed by his later successes. In 1979, he was recruited by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, beginning a key new chapter in his career.

Photo: Thomas S. England/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images

The inspiration for the Super Soaker came while experimenting for a major NASA mission

At NASA, Johnson was part of the historic Galileo mission, which sent an unmanned craft to study Jupiter and the depths of space en route to the largest planet in the solar system. One evening, while fiddling with ideas for a new refrigeration system that used water instead of the environmentally hazardous freon, he hooked a nozzle up to his bathroom sink.

"I accidentally shot a stream of water across a bathroom where I was doing the experiment and thought to myself, 'This would make a great gun,'" he later told Popular Mechanics.

The idea had to be put on pause so that Johnson could move from Pasadena to Nebraska, where in 1982 he rejoined the Air Force to work on a very sensitive project. By day, he worked on the first B-52 stealth bomber on the Air Force Base, and by night, he designed and built plexiglass pieces for a water gun on the lathe in his basement.

Once completed, Johnson handed the first prototype off to his 7-year-old daughter Aneka, who used it to absolutely wreck every other kid on the Air Force base. The water gun prototype was a success. Johnson's original plan was to manufacture the guns himself, but the $200,000 quote he received to get the first 1,000 guns in stores was far too steep for him to handle alone.

It took seven years for the Super Soaker to hit shelves

Thus began a seven-year search for a production partner, which ended only after a chance encounter at the American International Toy Fair in New York. A representative from the Philadelphia-based toy company Larami signaled some interest in the prototype and offered to host Johnson at the office if he ever found himself in Philadelphia.

Johnson already had one toy under his belt at that point, another compressed air contraption called the Jammin' Jet, which largely failed because it was shipped with a defect. This time, he was eager to make things right, and while Larami was largely known for knock-off toys, they were the only ones showing interest. Johnson went back home, redesigned the water gun, adding a water tank made out of a two liter soda bottle atop the barrel and made his pitch.

"I took the gun out of my suitcase," Johnson remembered. "They asked if it worked and I shot water across the conference room."

That was that. Larami put the first line of the gun, then known as the Power Drencher, on shelves in 1990. It was an instant hit, and after it was redesigned and rebranded Super Soaker the next year, sales went through the roof, with more than two million units sold in the summer of 1991.

Photo: Thomas S. England/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images

The Super Soaker has grossed over $1 billion

The Super Soaker has now sold over 250 million units since it launched, earning Larami and then Hasbro, which bought the toymaker in the '90s, well over $1 billion over the last 30 years. In 2015, the Super Soaker was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

Johnson was not content with simply making a fortune with the toy - he went back to NASA for a time and then helped Hasbro with cutting edge innovations for its Nerf line. Now he runs his own lab, has earned over 100 patents and is helping mentor a new generation of scientists, with a special focus on young people of color.

"When you look at large corporations, the minority representation is only 10 percent or so, but minorities are 30 percent of the population - soon to be 40 percent," he said in 2017. "We can't maintain technology leadership in the world when we're leaving large segments of our population on the sidelines. We need all hands on deck. That's something I emphasize to people every opportunity I get."

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How Lonnie Johnson Invented the Super Soaker

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For the past 30 years, kids (and more than a few adults) around the world have busted out their Super Soakers and conquered their neighborhood water gun fights. The high-power water bazooka is an impressive piece of technology in its own right, but its origin and legacy make it a piece of living history.

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Nelson Mandela Explains the Importance of Humility | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Oprah Winfrey Network

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Nelson Mandela Explains the Importance of Humility | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Oprah Winfrey Network

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Nelson Mandela, Anti-Apartheid Activist and World Leader | Biography

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Mae Jemison: First African American Woman in Space | Biography

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Bessie Coleman | 3 Minute History Cartoon

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