Easter Sunday April 9 1939

Marian Anderson, April 9 1939

Philadelphia born African American contralto Marian Anderson gave a celebrated open air recital on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939.

The Daughters of the American Revolution had refused to allow Anderson a chance to sing at Constitution Hall because of her race. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in by very publicly resigning her membership from the DAR with a letter that read in part "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."

Behind the scenes Roosevelt worked with Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to secure the Lincoln Memorial as an alternate venue for Anderson. The late afternoon concert was a tremendous success, attended by over 75,000 people and heard by millions more as the bevy of microphones laid before Anderson broadcast her voice live throughout the nation.

The newsreels of the day show Anderson treating the crowd to Schubert's Ave Maria, and a particularly stirring version of America (My Country Tis of Thee) among other selections.

Despite the success of the concert and her heightened profile, it would be another four years before Anderson was finally invited to sing at Constitution Hall, and not until 1955 that she became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera.

I added the graphics from the concert's original program; It's a little hard to read, but that's Lincoln's fourscore and seven years quote on the left.