Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American contralto whose repertoire ranged from opera to spirituals. From 1925 to 1965, she performed with major orchestras and at prominent concert halls and recital spaces across the United States and Europe. Anderson played a key role in the mid-20th-century fight against racial prejudice faced by African-American artists. In 1939, during segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from singing to a mixed-race audience at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. This incident thrust her into international attention, unusually for a classical musician. With help from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she gave a highly praised open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The event, documented in the film *Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert*, drew an integrated crowd of over 75,000 and millions more listening on the radio.

On January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. She also served as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, giving concerts worldwide. In the 1960s, she participated in the civil rights movement, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Anderson received numerous honors, including the first Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Congressional Gold Medal in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Anderson was born in Philadelphia on February 27, 1897, to John Berkley Anderson and Annie Delilah Rucker. Her father sold ice and coal at the Reading Terminal and later liquor. Before marriage, her mother briefly studied at the Virginia Seminary and College and worked as a schoolteacher in Virginia. Lacking a degree, Annie could not teach in Philadelphia due to a law applied only to Black teachers. She instead earned money caring for small children. Marian was the eldest of three daughters; her sisters Alyse (1899–1965) and Ethel (1902–90) also became singers. Ethel married James DePreist, and their son James Anderson DePreist became a noted conductor.

Anderson’s parents were devout Christians, and the family was active in the Union Baptist Church, then in a building constructed by the congregation in 1889 at 709 S. 12th Street in South Philadelphia. Her aunt Mary, her father’s sister, was deeply involved in the church’s music and convinced Marian to join the junior choir at age six. There, she sang solos and duets, often with her aunt. Aunt Mary took Marian to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit shows, and other community music events. Anderson credited her aunt’s influence for her singing career. From as young as six, her aunt arranged for Marian to sing at local functions, where she was paid 25 or 50 cents for a few songs. By her early teens, she earned four or five dollars per performance, a significant sum for the early 1900s. At age 10, she joined the People’s Chorus of Philadelphia under Emma Azalia Hackley, often as a soloist.

When Anderson was 12, her father suffered a head injury at the Reading Terminal shortly before Christmas 1909. He died soon after from heart failure at age 37. Marian and her family moved in with her father’s parents, Benjamin and Isabella Anderson. Her grandfather had been born enslaved and was emancipated in the 1860s, later relocating to South Philadelphia as the first in his family to do so. She grew close to him, but he died just a year after they moved in. Anderson attended Stanton Grammar School, graduating in 1912. Her family could not afford music lessons or high school, so she continued performing wherever possible and learned from anyone willing to teach. Through her teenage years, she remained active in church music and joined the adult choir. She became a member of the Baptists’ Young People’s Union and the Camp Fire Girls, which offered limited musical opportunities. Eventually, the People’s Chorus, her church’s pastor Reverend Wesley Parks, and other Black community leaders raised money for singing lessons with Mary Saunders Patterson and for her to attend South Philadelphia High School, from which she graduated in 1921. She then applied to the Philadelphia Music Academy, which refused her due to its all-white policy.

Undeterred, Anderson continued private studies in Philadelphia with support from the Black community, first with Agnes Reifsnyder, then Giuseppe Boghetti. She met Boghetti through her high school principal and auditioned by singing “Deep River,” which moved him 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 a nearly empty hall and received poor reviews. In 1923, Anderson made her first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.