Editing Marian Anderson (section)

===1939 Lincoln Memorial concert===
{{external media|audio1= [https://archive.org/details/MarianAnderson1939 Anderson performing] <!--Schubert's [[Ave Maria (Schubert)|Ave Maria]]; "Oh mio Fernando" from Donizetti's ''[[La favorite]]''; [[Spirituals]]: "[[The Gospel Train]]", "My Soul Is Anchored in the Lord", "Tramping", on the steps of--> at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939}}

In 1939, [[Sarah Corbin Robert]], head of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] (DAR) denied permission to Anderson for a concert on April 9 at [[DAR Constitution Hall]] under a white performers-only policy in effect at the time.<ref>{{Cite book|title= The World Book encyclopedia|date=2004|publisher= World Book |isbn=0-7166-0104-4|location= Chicago|oclc=52514287}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Robbins |first1=Hollis |title=Profits of Order |url=https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/profits-order/ |website=BLARB |date=September 30, 2019 |publisher=LA Review of Books |access-date=October 25, 2022 |archive-date=October 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025184436/https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/profits-order/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name= "metearlycareer">{{cite web| title = Marian Anderson at the MET: The 50th Anniversary, Early Career | publisher = The Metropolitan Opera Guild | year = 2005 | url = http://www.marian-anderson.org/early_career.htm| access-date = October 8, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060206192456/http://www.marian-anderson.org/early_career.htm| archive-date = February 6, 2006 | url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name= "DAR-anderson">{{cite web |title=NSDAR Archives Marian Anderson Documents (January–April 1939) |url=https://www.dar.org/national-society/nsdar-archives-marian-anderson-documents-january-april-1939 |website=Daughters of the American Revolution |date=April 8, 2019 |access-date=June 23, 2020 |archive-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908122909/https://www.dar.org/national-society/nsdar-archives-marian-anderson-documents-january-april-1939 |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition to the policy on performers, Washington, DC, was a segregated city, and Black patrons were upset that they would have to sit at the back of [[DAR Constitution Hall|Constitution Hall]]. Furthermore, Constitution Hall did not have the segregated public bathrooms then required by DC law for such events. Other DC venues were not an option: for example, the [[District of Columbia]] Board of Education declined a request for the use of the auditorium of [[Cardozo Education Campus#Marian Anderson controversy|Central High School]], a white public high school.<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AWNB&req_dat=C32C5C0C615C49A9ABE9C9BBD1FE80AA&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F15694041AAE98CC8|title=What we can give|date=June 12, 2015|work=Rolla Daily News|access-date=March 4, 2020}}</ref>

The next day, [[Charles Edward Russell]], a co-founder of the [[NAACP|National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) and chair of the DC citywide Inter-Racial Committee, held a meeting of the Marian Anderson Citizens Committee (MACC). This included the [[National Negro Congress]], the [[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]], the [[American Federation of Labor]], and the Washington Industrial Council-CIO, church leaders and activists in the city, and numerous other organizations. MACC elected [[Charles Hamilton Houston]] as its chairman and on February 20, the group picketed the Board of Education, collected signatures on petitions, and planned a mass protest at the next board meeting.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/dcs-old-jim-crow-rocked-by-1939-marian-anderson-concert/ |title= DC's Old Jim Crow Rocked by 1939 Marian Anderson Concert |last1= Simpson |first1= Craig |date= March 14, 2013 |work= Washington Spark |access-date= March 25, 2013 |archive-date= July 27, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130727072404/http://washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/dcs-old-jim-crow-rocked-by-1939-marian-anderson-concert/ |url-status= live }}</ref>

In the ensuing furor, thousands of DAR members, including [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], resigned from the organization.<ref name= "Leibovich-2008">Mark Leibovich, "Rights vs. Rights: An Improbable Collision Course", ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 13, 2008.</ref><ref name= "NYT">[[Allan Kozinn]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/09/obituaries/marian-anderson-is-dead-at-96-singer-shattered-racial-barriers.html "Marian Anderson Is Dead at 96; Singer Shattered Racial Barriers"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 9, 1993.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=NBC Radio coverage of Marian Anderson's recital at the Lincoln Memorial |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2008/ |website=[[National Recording Preservation Board]] |access-date=July 21, 2022 |date=April 9, 1939 |archive-date=August 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813210052/https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2008/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Roosevelt wrote to the DAR: "I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist{{nbsp}}... You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/eleanor-anderson/ "Biography: Marian Anderson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323173156/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/eleanor-anderson/ |date=March 23, 2017 }}, ''[[American Experience]]'', [[PBS]]</ref>

African American novelist [[Zora Neale Hurston]], however, criticized Roosevelt's failure to condemn the simultaneous decision of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, now the [[District of Columbia State Board of Education]], to exclude Anderson from singing at the segregated white [[Central High School (Washington, D.C.)|Central High School]].  Hurston declared "to jump the people responsible for racial bias would be to accuse and expose the accusers themselves. The District of Columbia has no home rule; it is controlled by congressional committees, and Congress at the time was overwhelmingly Democratic. It was controlled by the very people who were screaming so loudly against the DAR. To my way of thinking, both places should have been denounced, or neither."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beito |first=David |title=Zora and Eleanor: Toward a Fuller Understanding of the First Lady's Civil Rights Legacy |url=https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=14736 |journal=Independent Institute |date=November 15, 2023 |access-date=November 18, 2023 |archive-date=November 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118001406/https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=14736 |url-status=live }}</ref>

As the controversy grew, the American press overwhelmingly supported Anderson's right to sing. The ''[[Philadelphia Tribune]]'' wrote, "A group of tottering old ladies, who don't know the difference between patriotism and putridism, have compelled the gracious First Lady to apologize for their national rudeness." The ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]]'' wrote, "In these days of racial intolerance so crudely expressed in the Third Reich, an action such as the D.A.R.'s ban{{nbsp}}... seems all the more deplorable."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Concert that Stirred America's Conscience|url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2019/2/21/the-concert-that-stirred-americas-conscience|website=The Attic|date=February 21, 2019|access-date=March 19, 2019|archive-date=January 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123115437/https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2019/2/21/the-concert-that-stirred-americas-conscience|url-status=live}}</ref> With the support of Eleanor Roosevelt,<ref>[https://fdrlibrary.org/anderson Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028203905/https://www.fdrlibrary.org/anderson |date=October 28, 2022 }}, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum]]</ref> President Roosevelt and [[Walter Francis White|Walter White]], then-executive secretary of the NAACP, and Anderson's manager, Sol Hurok, persuaded [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Harold L. Ickes]] to arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the [[Lincoln Memorial]].<ref name="Leibovich-2008" /> The concert was performed on Easter Sunday, April 9. Anderson was accompanied, as usual, by Vehanen. They began the performance with a dignified and stirring rendition of "[[My Country, 'Tis of Thee]]". The event attracted a crowd of more than 75,000 in addition to a national radio audience of millions.<ref>{{cite web| first = Jacqueline | last = Hansen |url= http://www.usps.com/communications/community/_txt/mariankit.txt |title= Marian Anderson, Voice of the Century |publisher=United States Postal Service |year=2005 |access-date=August 5, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070929100152/http://www.usps.com/communications/community/_txt/mariankit.txt |archive-date=September 29, 2007}}</ref>

Two months later, in conjunction with the 30th NAACP conference in [[Richmond, Virginia]], Eleanor Roosevelt gave a speech on national radio (NBC and CBS) and presented Anderson with the 1939 [[Spingarn Medal]] for distinguished achievement.<ref>{{cite journal|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OVsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA213 | title=Along the N.A.A.C.P. Battlefront – Richmond Welcomes 30th N.A.A.C.P. Conference | journal= The Crisis | volume=46 | number=7 | date= July 1939 | quote= With the conference reaching its climax Sunday Afternoon in the speech of Mrs. Roosevelt presenting to Marian Anderson the 24th Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievement. Mrs Roosevelt's speech will be broadcast ofer both the National Broadcasting Company network and the Columbia Broadcasting chain of stations | access-date=August 1, 2018}}</ref> In 2001, a [[Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert|documentary film of the concert]] was chosen for the [[National Film Registry]], and in 2008, [[NBC]] radio coverage of the event was selected for the [[National Recording Registry]].<ref name="NYT" />

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial.webm|Newsreel footage of Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial
File:MarianAndersonLincolnMemorial.png|Lincoln Memorial concert, April 9, 1939
File:Jamieson-Incident-in-Contemporary American-Life.tif|[[Mitchell Jamieson]]'s 1943 mural ''An Incident in Contemporary American Life'', at the United States [[Main Interior Building|Department of the Interior Building]], depicting the scene
</gallery>