Throughout a profession which spanned forty years, the American contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993) carried out at main live performance venues which included the Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire included opera, lieder, and African American spirituals.
In 1939, when segregation prevented her from singing at Structure Corridor in Washington D.C., Anderson carried out at an open air Easter Sunday live performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which was organized with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt. The built-in viewers of 75,000 was joined by radio listeners throughout the nation. Anderson went on to carry out on the presidential inaugurations of Dwight D. Eisenhower (in 1957) and John F. Kennedy (in 1962). In the course of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, she gave an iconic efficiency on the event of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Kennedy and King grew to become martyrs, joined quickly after by Robert F. Kennedy and Malcolm X. Kennedy tried to make peace with the Soviets by way of backchannel negotiations, combat the scourge of colonialism and “secret societies,” and navigate the nation away from an impending battle in Vietnam. King, additionally staunchly antiwar, dreamed of a society by which we might be judged by the content material of our character relatively than the colour of our pores and skin.
Right here is Marian Anderson’s recording of the non secular, I Stood on De Ribber Ob Jerdon:
Worry is a illness that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.
– Marian Anderson
Recordings
- I Stood on De Ribber Ob Jerdon, Marian Anderson Amazon
Featured Picture: {photograph} by Yousuf Karsh
