Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 - April 8, 1993) displayed vocal
talent as a child, but her family could not afford to pay for formal
training. Members of her church congregation raised funds for her to
attend a music school for a year, and in 1955 she became the first
African American singer to perform as a member of the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City. She was an international star by 1939 when she was scheduled to perform to an integrated audience at the DAR's Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. The DAR refuse to let her perform. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR as a result and she and her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were successful in an effort to move the concert to the Lincoln Memorial. On Easter Sunday, 75,000 people showed up to the concert which was also broadcast to millions on radio stations around the country. This concert was an important milestone in the struggle for civil rights.
Read more about the great Marian Anderson with books from the Library's collections:
The sound of freedom : Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the concert that awakened America. by Raymond Arsenault, c. 2009.
FAMU COLEMAN LIBRARY African-American Collection - 4th Floor, Room 403
ML420.A6 A77 2009
The voice that challenged a nation : Marian Anderson and the struggle for equal rights. by Russell Freedman, c. 2004.
FAMU COLEMAN LIBRARY African-American Collection - 4th Floor, Room 403
My Lord, what a morning : an autobiography by Marian Anderson, c. 2002.
FAMU COLEMAN LIBRARY African-American Collection - 4th Floor, Room 403
Marian Anderson, a portrait by Kosti Vehanen. by Vehanen, Kosti 1887-1957, c. 1941.
FAMU COLEMAN LIBRARY African-American Collection - 4th Floor, Room 403
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