Marian Anderson: a voice for freedom: how a singer's remarkable voice helped transcend a nation's ugly racial divide.

* OBJECTIVE

Students should understand

* Marian Anderson was a groundbreaking African-American singer and a civil-rights pioneer.

* BACKGROUND

Other black singers had mastered the classical repertoire before Marian Anderson, but it was her success that paved the way for future stars such as Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman. Anderson's ability was never seriously in doubt. When she sang for Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, he threw his arms around her and exclaimed, "My ceiling is much too low for your voice."

* CRITICAL THINKING

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Constitution Hall (still owned by the DAR) has a seating capacity of 3,702. How does that compare with the crowd on the Washington Mall for Anderson's 1939 concert? (Far more people--about 20 times as many--were on the Mall.)

MAKING INFERENCES: How might the controversy over the concert's location have affected the turnout? (Most likely, the controversy intensified the turnout among people who wanted to show their support for Anderson.)

* ACTIVITY

LET FREEDOM SING: Here are the tunes Anderson sang that Easter Sunday: "America," Gaetano Donizetti's "O mio Fernando," Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," and four spirituals: "Gospel Train," "Trampin'," "My Soul Is Anchored in the Lord," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See." What can students find out about these songs, their lyrics, and origins? What significance might they have had in the life of an African-American concert singer?

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Culture: Marian Anderson was able to succeed despite the racism she encountered.

* Time, continuity, and change: Anderson's experiences reflected her time, but also helped change things for future African-Americans.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Friedman, Russell, The Voice That Challenged America (Houghton Mifflin, 2004). Grades 6-12.

* Ferris, Jeri, What I Had Was Singing (Lerner Publishing Group, 1994). Grades 6-12.

WEB SITES

* Marian Anderson: A Life in Song

www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/anderson

* Marian Anderson Historical Society

mariananderson.org

On the morning of April 9, 1939, for the first time ever, workers carried a grand piano up the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Others set up microphones and a sound system. By 5 o'clock on that Easter Sunday, about 75,000 people had crowded onto the Mall. Many were from the city's black community. As one attendee later said, everyone knew how important the day was.

At last, African-American contralto Marian Anderson stepped up to the microphone. "I had a feeling that a great wave of goodwill poured out from these people, almost engulfing [overwhelming] me," she later wrote.* "And when I stood up to sing ["America"], I felt for a moment as though I were choking. For a desperate second I thought that the words, well as I know them, would not come."

Anderson had been denied the right to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because she was black. Many people had been enraged at the injustice. In response, a few influential people, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, had organized the concert on the Mall. Now, Anderson was standing at the place where, 24 years later, Martin Luther King Jr. would give his "I Have a Dream" speech. On that afternoon in 1939, Anderson struck her blow for freedom simply by singing.

"Free as a Bird"

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 27, 1897. The oldest of three girls, she was a happy child, especially when singing in the choir at the Union Baptist Church. From the beginning, adults noticed her naturally beautiful, powerful voice.

When Marian was 12, her father died. Marian had to go to work to help support her family. She delivered laundry that her mother took in, and scrubbed the white marble steps of Philadelphia row houses.

There was never money for music lessons. But people sensed that Marian had a destiny. On many occasions, the congregation at Union Baptist raised money for her.

"We want to do something for our Marian," the Reverend Wesley Parks said. The first collection brought in $17.02. Marian used the money to buy fabric, which her mother made into Marian's first evening gown.

"I sang naturally, free as a bird, with a voice of considerable size and wide range," Anderson later wrote in her autobiography. "There was no difficulty in filling the church auditorium." Soon, she was in demand at black colleges and churches.

"A Cold, Horrifying Hand"

But there were barriers to overcome. One day, Anderson tried to apply to a Philadelphia music school. When she reached the front of the line, the white woman who was taking applications ignored her for a long time. Finally, the woman said, "We don't take colored." (Colored is a term once widely used for black Americans that is now considered offensive.)

"I don't think I said a word," Anderson later wrote. "It was as if a cold, horrifying hand had been laid on me. I turned and walked out. It was my first contact with the blunt, brutal words, and this school of music was the last place I expected to hear them."

As Anderson grew more famous and traveled farther from home, discrimination remained a problem. In the South in the early 20th century, Jim Crow laws required the separation of races in many public places.

Nonetheless, in time, she established a reputation in the great concert halls of Europe. There she perfected a program of European art songs and spirituals. In 1935, the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini heard Anderson sing in Salzburg, Austria. "A voice like yours is heard once in a hundred years," he said.

At this point, Anderson was ready to be discovered by her own country. She appeared repeatedly on the radio, heard by millions of Americans. In 1936, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Anderson to sing at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and herself. The next day, Mrs. Roosevelt wrote in her newspaper column, "My Day," "I have rarely heard a more beautiful and moving voice."

In 1939, promoters tried to rent Constitution Hall for a Marian Anderson concert. Constitution Hall was owned by a group called the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The all-white DAR was an exclusive organization of women descended from patriots of the American Revolution. The DAR refused to rent its hall to nonwhites.

A storm of protest followed the decision. Eleanor Roosevelt was so angry that she resigned from the DAR. Soon, she helped organize the concert on the Mall.

A Great Day of Pride

Easter Sunday started out cold and overcast. But by late afternoon, the sun had broken through the clouds. Shortly after 5 o'clock, Harold Ickes (ICK-eez), the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, introduced Anderson to the crowd. "Genius draws no color line," he said.

Somehow, Anderson remembered, she got her voice to work. "I am so overwhelmed, I just can't talk," she told the audience at the end of the concert. "I can't tell you what you have done for me today. I thank you from the bottom of my heart again and again."

The concert proved to be a turning point for Anderson. She went on to achieve great fame. In 1955, she overcame discrimination at New York City's Metropolitan Opera, becoming the first African-American singer to perform there as a regular member.

Black Americans looked upon the Easter 1939 concert with tremendous pride. Decades later, many took part in the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. For them, that great day Marian Anderson sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial had been the start of it all.

WORDS to Know

* contralto: the lowest range of the female singing voice.

* Jim Crow: a term for discriminatory laws, from an offensive reference to black people.

* spiritual: a religious song originated by blacks in the Southern United Slates.

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. adversity   A. religious song
2. contralto   B. overwhelm
3. engulf      C. difficulty
4. Jim Crow    D. discriminatory
                  laws
5. spiritual   E. lowest female
                  singing voice

1. C

2. E

3. B

4. D

5. A

THINK ABOUT IT

1. What symbolic significance did the site of Marian Anderson's Easter concert have?

2. What obstacles did Anderson have to overcome in order to succeed in her career?

Throughout her life, Marian Anderson remained as symbol of dignity and triumph over adversity (difficulty or misfortune). Among her many honors, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country," Anderson wrote in her autobiography. She died in 1993 at the age of 69.

* Excerpts are from Marian Anderson's autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, originally published in 1956 by The Viking Press. Current edition published in 2002 by the University of Illinois Press.

AMERICAN HISTORY: MARIAN ANDERSON,

PAGES 18-20

* Use a word from this list to correctly complete each sentence.

Capital City Opera, Constitution Hall, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Easter Sunday, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Day, Metropolitan Opera, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Thanksgiving Day, Arturo Toscanini, Union Baptist Church choir

16. In 1939, Marian Anderson's promoters wanted to arrange a concert for her at --.

17 The new location for the concert was arranged by a group that included --.

18. Anderson's historic Washington, D.C., concert took place on -- in 1939.

19. A famous conductor, -- praised Anderson's remarkable singing voice.

20. Marian Anderson was the first African-American to perform as a regular member of the --.

Answers:

18. Easter Sunday

19. Arturo Toscanini

20. Metropolitan Opera