HWOF

Photo of Marian Anderson by Carl Van Vechten (1940).

Source: Wikipedia

For over forty years, Marian Anderson wowed audiences in both the United States and Europe with her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals. As an African-American, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice during the mid twentieth century. In 1939, when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience, the internationally community began to listen. With the aid of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson performed a open-air concert on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. In addition to this inspiring performance, in 1955, Anderson became the first black person in the world to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Anderson will forever be known as a pioneer for human rights, both by her work as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and by her international acclaim as an African American singer.

• Born: February 27, 1897
• Died: April 8, 1993
• Occupation Singer, Humanitarian

Read more about Marian Anderson at Wikipedia or at the Internet Movie Database

Critic’s Notebook: Sony Classical Releases 4 New Historic Met Opera CDs
NY Times Music, 2012-01-20 22:55:29
Marian Anderson in Verdi's "Ballo in Maschera" at the Met in 1955.

Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess
Variety, 2011-01-27 10:52:09
Film Reviews: Filmmaker Lily Scourtis Ayers' portrait of punk rocker Marian Anderson -- who died of a heroin overdose in 2001 at age 33 -- is a technically proficient collage of interviews with Anderson's intimates, performance tapes and archival footage in a variety of formats. Given the relative obscurity of ...

Mia Farrow chosen for Marian Anderson Award (omg!)
Yahoo Entertainment, 2011-01-15 00:08:34
omg! - AP - Actress and human rights activist Mia Farrow will be the 2011 recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, which honors artists whose leadership benefits humanity.