Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American contralto whose career spanned four decades, from 1925 to 1965. Her repertoire ranged from opera to spirituals, and she performed with major orchestras in top concert halls and recital spaces across the United States and Europe. Anderson became a key figure in the mid-twentieth-century fight against racial prejudice faced by African-American artists.

DAR and the 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert

In 1939, during the era of racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) barred Anderson from singing to a mixed-race audience at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. This event thrust her into the international spotlight, an unusual level of attention for a classical musician. With help from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson gave a highly praised open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The performance, featured in the documentary Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert, drew an integrated crowd of over 75,000 people and a radio audience of millions.

Presidential inaugurations and goodwill ambassador tours

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. Department of State, giving concerts worldwide. During the 1960s, she participated in the civil rights movement, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Anderson received many 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.

Early life and education

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 sold liquor. Before marrying, her mother briefly studied at the Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg and worked as a schoolteacher in Virginia.

Because she lacked a degree, Annie Anderson could not teach in Philadelphia under a law applied only to Black teachers, so she 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 at Union Baptist Church, then located at 709 S. 12th Street in South Philadelphia. Her aunt Mary, her father’s sister, was deeply involved in the church’s music and persuaded Marian to join the junior choir at age six, where she sang solos and duets, often with her aunt. Aunt Mary took Marian to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit events, and other community music gatherings.

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, earning 25 or 50 cents per performance; by her early teens, she could make four or five dollars, a large sum for the early 1900s. At age ten, Marian joined the People’s Chorus of Philadelphia under singer Emma Azalia Hackley, often serving as a soloist.

When Anderson was twelve, her father suffered a head injury at the Reading Terminal just before Christmas 1909 and died soon after from heart failure at age 37. Marian and her family moved in with her paternal grandparents, Benjamin and Isabella Anderson. Her grandfather had been born a slave and was emancipated in the 1860s, relocating to South Philadelphia as the first in his family to do so. Marian grew close to him, but he died 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 learning from anyone willing to teach.

During her teenage years, she stayed active in her church’s music and the adult choir, and joined the Baptists’ Young People’s Union and the Camp Fire Girls, which offered limited musical opportunities. The People’s Chorus of Philadelphia, her 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 studied privately in Philadelphia with support from the Black community, first with Agnes Reifsnyder, then with Giuseppe Boghetti. She met Boghetti through her high school principal; she auditioned for him by singing “Deep River,” moving him to tears. Boghetti arranged a recital of English, Russian, Italian, and German music at New York City’s Town Hall in April 1924, but it was poorly attended and received bad reviews. In 1923, Anderson made her first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company.