Marian Anderson
He was so moved; he dedicated his song “Solitude” to her.
She followed those concerts with appearances throughout Europe. This tour
concluded in 1935 with an international festival in Salzburg called the
Mozarteum. Arturo Toscanini, a very prestigious conductor. Another famous
impresario, Sol Hurok, also heard her sing shortly after that and made a
contract with her for American concerts. On December 20, 1935, Marian appeared
for the second time at New York’s Town Hall. This time she was a great success.
She also gave two concerts at Carnegie Hall, then toured the states from coast
to coast.
She went on to tour Europe again, and even Latin America, through
1938 – performing about 70 times a year. Throughout her life, Marian had
experienced racism, but the most famous event occurred in 1939. Hurok tried to
rent Washington, D.C.’s Constitutional Hall, the city’s foremost center, but
was told no dates were available. Washington was segregated and even the hall
had segregated seating. In 1935, the hall instated a new clause: “concert by
white artists only.” Hurok would have walked away with the response he’d
received, but a rival manager asked about renting the hall for the same dates
and was told they were open.
The hall’s director told Hurok the truth, even
yelling before slamming down the phone, “No Negro will ever appear in this hall
while I am manager.” The public was outraged, famous musicians protested, and
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the Daughters of the American
Revolution (DAR), who owned the hall. Roosevelt, along with Hurok and Walter
White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), encouraged Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to arrange a free
open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for Easter Sunday. On
April 9, Marian sang before 75,000 people and millions of radio listeners.
Several weeks later, Marian gave a private concert at the White House, where
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was entertaining King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth of Britain.
In July 1943, Marian married Orpheus H. Fisher, a Delaware
architect she had known since childhood. During her career, she received many
awards, including the Springarn Medal in 1939, given annually to a black
American who “shall have made the highest achievement during the preceding year
or years in any honorable field of endeavor.” In 1941, she received the Bok
award, given annually to an outstanding Philadelphia citizen. She used the
$10,000 prize money to found the Marian Anderson Scholarships. In 1963,
President Lyndon Johnson awarded her the American Medal of Freedom. In 1977,
Congress awarded her a gold medal for what was thought to be her 75th birthday.
In 1980, the U.S. Treasury Department coined a half-ounce gold commemorative
medal with her likeness.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan presented her with the
National Medal of Arts. Rather than fight much of the racism she received,
despite her enormous popularity, Marian preferred to avoid situations whenever
possible. In Europe, she was welcomed into the finest hotels and restaurants,
but in the U.S., she was shifted to third- or fourth-class accommodations. In
the South, she often stayed with friends. Simple tasks as arranging for
laundry, taking a train, or eating at a restaurant were often difficult. She
would take meals in her room and traveled in drawing rooms on night trains.
Early on, she insisted on “vertical” seating in segregated cities; meaning
black audience members would be allotted seats in all parts of the auditorium.
Many times, it was the first time blacks would sit in the orchestra section. By
1950, she would refuse to sing where the audience was segregated. In 1986,
Orpheus passed away. In July 1992, Marian moved to Portland, Oregon, to live
with her nephew
Quotes By Marian Anderson
I could not run away from the situation. I had become,
whether I liked it or not, a symbol, representing my people. I had to appear.
As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to
be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you
otherwise might.
It is easy to look back, self-indulgently, feeling
pleasantly sorry for oneself and saying I didn't have this and I didn't have
that. But it is only the grown woman regretting the hardships of a little girl
who never thought they were hardships at all. She had the things that really
mattered
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