Portrait of Marian Anderson – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Considered one of the great singers of the 20th century, Marian Anderson began performing at a young age, spending her teens traveling in segregated railroad cars to perform in concert halls, many of which refused to seat African Americans. A tour of Europe made her a star in her twenties, but it was the Daughters of the American Revolution refusing to let her sing in Constitution Hall in 1939 that added her name to the national debate on race. Shortly after, she sang to an estimated 75,000 outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Anderson spent the later years of her life living in Danbury, Connecticut. Her studio there is now a site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
