History has always been a passion of mine, and this is one of my favorite stories.
Marian Anderson was a brilliant opera singer who embarked on her impressive career during the late 1920's. She toured through Europe and the United States and was hailed everywhere as a performer of extraordinary talent.
In 1939 her manager booked a concert at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. When the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the owners of that particular theater, discovered that Marian Anderson was a Negro they somehow remembered that there was a conflict of schedules and that the hall would not be available for Ms. Anderson's performance.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who was a member of the DAR, was appalled. She resigned her membership and arranged for Marian Anderson to perform a free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. 75,000 people showed up, and the concert was broadcast to millions of radio listeners.
Both these women are extraordinary in their own way, and together they were able to teach a lesson about equality to an entire nation.
This is a link that contains information about this moment in history and also has a newsclip of Marian Anderson's performance that day.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/anderson/lincoln.html
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wife, mother, wife, diplomat and First Lady.
Eleanor was the "First Lady of the Land".
120 pages, single space, etc., 1967.