How Marian Anderson Took the World by Storm
Her mighty contralto propelled her across color lines
By Hanif Abdurraqib
On Easter Sunday 1939, Marian Anderson, wrapped in a fur coat against the April chill, stepped to the microphone atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and launched into “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee).” First lady Eleanor Roosevelt had assembled an integrated crowd of 75,000 people—an unprecedented honor for a Black artist—who listened in solemn awe. Todd Duncan, a singer and voice teacher in the audience that day, described Anderson’s performance as indelible: “I know my soul has it and it will never, never leave,” he told the Washington Post.
One of the greatest contraltos in the history of American music, Anderson is best known for breaking color barriers. Indeed, no female American performer a...