A Profound Lesson In Racial Tolerance

The appearance of operatic contralto Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial some 70 years ago today had a mythical status in my civil-rights activist family and I heard the story retold many times as a child.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience at its Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., because she was black. Their refusal prompted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to arrange for her to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939, which was Easter Sunday.

More than 75,000 people attended the critically acclaimed concert while a radio audience of millions, including my mother and grandmother, listened in. Both renounced their DAR memberships and never looked back.