Glossary
| Anderson, Marian | | The first African American to perform with the prestigious Metropolitan Opera, famed vocalist Marian Anderson was hailed as the greatest contralto of her time. Anderson's extraordinary career spanned the years from the early 1920s through the 1970s. She became a symbol of progress early in the civil rights era when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest and arranged for Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 75,000 people attended. Recipient of numerous awards, Anderson was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. She died in 1993 at the age of ninety-one. |
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