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Born February 27, 1902, in Philadelphia, PA
Died April 8, 1993, in Portland, OR
Marian Anderson was considered the greatest contralto of her generation and one of the golden voices of the 20th century. When she was refused permission to sing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in protest and offered Anderson the use of the Lincoln Memorial. She performed outdoors before an enthusiastic crowd of 75,000 on Easter Sunday, 1939. In 1955, she became the first Black soloist to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Anderson’s extraordinary life is detailed in her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning (1956).