All language subtitles for Marian.Anderson.The.Whole.World.In.Her.Hands.2022

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-Will you enter,
Mystery Challenger,

and sign in, please?

-Are you a motion-picture
actress?

-No.

-Have you performed
on the Broadway stage?

-No.

-I heard such a tremendous hand
when you walked in.

Does this hand -- Well,
let's assume you have talent.

This hand also come from your --
from your beauty?

-No.

-Well, I can't let that stand.

I will say that there is
talent here and beauty

and all of the things

that go to get the wonderful
hand that you spoke about.

##

-She was the first
African-American

to make her debut
at the Metropolitan Opera.

She was almost 60 years old.

-She was pursued
by nobility and aristocracy.

She enjoyed the life of a diva.

##

-She was performing in Europe.

And you come back home...

##

-A light was shown on racism,
unlike any other time.

-Genius draws no color line!

-She uttered not a word
in response,

and she stood flat-footed...
and she sang.

-# In the Lord, in the Lord

# My soul's been anchored
in the Lord #

# In the Lord, in the Lord

-She was the chosen one.

-She was a powerful being...

a powerful spirit...

that changed the world
through her singing voice.

-# In the Lord, in the Lord

# My soul's been anchored
in the Lord #

# In the Lord, in the Lord

# My soul's been anchored
in the Lord #

# God knows my soul's

# Been anchored in the Lord

##

-# Steal away

-I remember one day

delivering the basket of laundry
for my mother,

and I heard a piano being played
and somebody singing.

-# To Jesus

-I went up the steps

and peeked in the window.

##

-# Steal away home

-There, sitting
on a piano stool,

I saw a woman who looked
not different than me

and she was playing very well.

She was not dressed up.

She was unconscious
that anyone was looking at her.

-# Steal away home

# I ain't got long

-In that moment, I realized
if she could, I could.

-# To stay here

##

-Marian Anderson
was born in 1897,

the year after
Plessy v. Ferguson,

the Supreme Court decision
that established

the "separate but equal"
doctrine.

All four of her grandparents
were descended from slaves.

-# When Israel
was in Egypt's land #

# Let my people go

-In the 1890s,

Marian's grandfather, Benjamin,

and Isabella,
Aunt Marian's grandmother,

moved from Virginia
to Philadelphia.

They were part
of the early migration

of people moving from the South
to the North for a better life.

-# Go down, Moses

# Way down in Egypt's land

# Tell old Pharaoh

# To let my people

# Go

-Philadelphia had the largest

free Black population
before the Civil War,

so it's had a long history
of Black communities.

-There were middle-class Blacks,
educated Blacks

going back
to the late 18th century.

-But the largest number
of African-Americans

in a place like Philadelphia
were poor.

You have tensions
between immigrant communities

who are coming into Philadelphia
fighting for the same jobs.

You also have tension
between African-Americans

who had been in Philadelphia
for generations

and new African-Americans.

-Marian's father, John,
he was a hard worker.

He worked
at the Reading Terminal

as a laborer,
a jack-of-all-trades.

He delivered coal.

And whites
certainly made it clear

that there were a lot of
employment opportunities

where Blacks were not welcome,

and so they really
had to scratch and fight

for everything they got.

##

-My father
was a very handsome man.

-# La-da-da-da-da-da-dum

-I remember hearing him --
# La-da-da-da-da-da, da-dum

That was his favorite thing
to hum

while he was getting dressed.

He was a very tall man,
about six feet,

and Mother's short,

and I remembered
hearing him tell mother

when she was helping him
put on his tie

that she should get newspaper

and stand on it
to make her tall enough.

My father was a special officer
in the Union Baptist Church.

I was taken along to church
with my father

practically every Sunday.

-The church was the epicenter.

We went to church for dinners.

We went to church
for social events.

We went to church
for religious services.

Sunday was an all-day affair.

-At 6 years old, we were taken
to the children's choir

with my aunt.

After a short while,
the group was singing so well

that we sang
for the big Sunday school.

##

By the time we arrived
at our little house,

the director of the choir
had already been there and left.

My mother told my father

that Mr. Robinson
wanted to be sure

that I would be able
to be in church earlier

the next Sunday because there
were going to be visitors,

and he wanted that
we should sing for them.

My father said in reply to that,

"I'm not going to have them
singing my child to death."

My first public appearance.

-She grew quite the audience
at that church.

##

-My father bought
our first piano.

Oh, you have no idea the joy.

-They knew she had
this musical gift.

She seemed to just have this
extraordinary sense of melody.

##

-I remember taking
one finger of his hand

to make it go up the scale.

His fingers were so large

that I could scarcely get them
on one key at a time.

##

He may even have tried
to hit two notes

to make me feel that he couldn't
do it as well as I.

##

One fine day,
I was sent to the store,

and I saw something
lying on the street.

It was, oh, a little handbill,

but there was something
in the corner

that was strangely familiar
to me.

There in the corner
was a small snapshot

under which it said,

"Come Hear the Baby Contralto."

I was absolutely flabbergasted
and stunned.

I was the proudest thing
in the neighborhood.

##

The amusing thing was they said,

"The Baby Contralto,
10 years old,"

and I was then 8.

That was the first time

that I had seen my name
and my picture in print.

-Her father protected her

until his untimely death
in 1909

when she was 12 years old.

##

-John was working
on the track line,

and he was struck on the head.

He didn't get the immediate
medical treatment

that he needed.

-He died in our little home.

-Aunt Marian's mother, Anna,

wanted to take her daughters
back to Virginia,

where she was from.

But Aunt Marian's grandmother,
Isabella, prohibited that.

-They immediately
had to move in

with her grandmother
and grandfather,

and the grandfather died
the next year,

and so it was
just the grandmother,

who was not a very warm figure.

-My grandmother was boss
even of my mother,

and she was the one who decided
what should be done

when, where, and how.

-Anna, her mother,

got a teaching certificate
in Virginia,

but in Philadelphia, officials
would not certify her to teach.

-She decided to take work
as a domestic

at the John Wanamaker
Department Store.

##

-My sister and I stopped in
at Wanamaker's,

and Mother was so busy
and so intent

on the job which she had to do,

she didn't realize that
anybody else was in the world.

##

-Marian Anderson's grandmother
insisted she work full-time

to try to help support
the family.

She had to leave school
at the age of 12.

She worked, singing,
but also working as a domestic,

just anything she could get
to help the family.

##

Marian's Aunt Mary,
her father's sister,

was really the biggest influence
on her.

##

-At 13 or 14, my aunt took me
with her to the senior choir.

The conductor was good enough
to let us take the music home,

and we learned everybody's part.

##

The great piece of the choir
was the "Inflammatus."

-The "Inflammatus" is a anthem

that the Black Church
would sing.

Even for the most trained
singers, it's a tour de force.

There's a bunch of high C's
in there,

especially at the very end.

-It allows you to do a lot
of rather nice gymnastics.

There seemed not to be
too much vocally

that gave one
a great deal of trouble.

-For young Black women
like Marian Anderson,

there were fewer options
for studying and for performing.

-We have all been conditioned,
particularly in this country,

to believe that with the
art form of classical music,

there's a different face
than ours.

-Classical music
was seen as something

that only a European person
should perform in

or should be seen doing.

-There were many
African-American women singers

who came along
before Marian Anderson.

##

Elizabeth Greenfield.
The Hyers Sisters.

"Black Patti,"
Sissieretta Jones.

-With Sissieretta Jones, it was
just so fresh off of slavery

that there was just
very little chance

of her breaking
certain barriers.

-Most concert halls
and opera houses

are completely off-limits
for Black singers.

African-American communities

would create their own
classical-music world.

They would stage operas.

They would stage
full symphony concerts.

-The Theodore Drury Company
in the 1902, 1903, 1904.

Harry Lawrence Freeman
is a composer

who was writing operas
for Denver in the 1890s.

-Roland Hayes was somebody
who was a trailblazer

of trying to figure out,
how could he create a career

for himself in classical music?

-He was the first

African-American superstar
in classical music.

When he sang,
you heard his soul.

-# Du bist die Ruh#

# Der Friede mild#

-Every year,
there was a gala concert,

and the gala concert meant
that Roland Hayes was coming.

Roland Hayes' program

consisted of a group
of Italian classics,

German lieder,
and French art songs.

-# ...dir#

# Voll Lust und Schmerz#

-He would end it
with Negro spirituals,

and that was the only English
on the program.

But there were a group of people
who said,

"Well, I think now we should
have our Marian on the program

because if she sings, we'll know
what she's singing about."

-Roland Hayes realized
Marian Anderson's ability,

and he, in fact,
gave her a big break in 1917.

He invited Marian Anderson
to do the contralto part

of Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah"
in Boston at Jordan Hall.

-# Oh, rest in the Lord

# Wait patiently

# For Him

# Wait patiently

# For Him

-She was 20, and she got to meet

a number of the best musicians
in Boston.

-Roland Hayes would introduce
Marian Anderson

to his voice teacher,
Arthur Hubbard.

Arthur Hubbard made an offer
to Marian Anderson

that he would help her
to refine her voice,

and in exchange,
she would do maid service.

-# Wait

# Wait

-Roland Hayes thought it would
be a wonderful opportunity

because I could
even go to the studio

and hear lessons
of other people.

My grandmother didn't know
what the advantage would be.

So far as she was concerned,
I could sing.

So to Boston I did not go.

-Her grandmother
did not want her to be a maid.

Her first trip to the South
in 1917,

she was invited to sing by a
Black organization in Savannah.

-# Poor me

# Poor me

-I went south
while I was in high school,

and my mother was my chaperone.

When we got to Washington,

we had to get out of the train
and get into the first coach.

The coach was called
the Jim Crow Car.

-# Poor me

-Anna and Marian thought
they were going to be

in a normal rail car,
and it was shocking.

She had all these images
as they were on the train

of night riders, vigilantes

coming to take her
off the train.

Nothing like that happened,

but she was terrified
all the way down.

-It meant, of course, that one
had to sit up all night,

and that was what we did.

-# Poor me

-I noticed some of my people

were embarrassed
to the very core.

There were others who accepted

what they were
having to live through.

They were not in the position
to do anything at all.

-# Poor me

-It was certainly necessary
to do something about it.

-# Trouble will

# Bury

# Me

# Down

-When she got to Savannah,

they got a very warm welcome
from the Black community,

and it turned out to be
a good experience for her.

##

-In the summer of 1919,

Marian Anderson
traveled to Chicago

for a six-week opera course.

She's coming from
Philadelphia to Chicago

during a time of unrest
in the city.

-What you have
is a growing Black population,

and there's tensions between

the Black population
and the white population.

-An African-American young man

had floated in the lake
to the wrong side.

They threw a rock and hit him.

And he died.

There was a race riot.

-When she sang "The Crucifixion"
in the 1950s,

you could hear the memories of
the South and the riots of 1919.

-# They crucified

# My Lord

# And He never said

# A mumblin' word

# They crucified

# My Lord

# And he never said

# A mumblin' word

# Not a word

# Not a word

# He bowed his head

# And died

# And He never said

# A mumblin'

# Word

# Not a word

# Not a word

# Not a

# Word

-Although there was a riot
going on in Chicago,

she entered the competition

of the National Association
of Negro Musicians.

They were having
their first festival.

And Marian Anderson
won the competition.

She sang the aria
"Adieu, Forets" by Tchaikovsky.

And it's Joan of Arc's aria.

##

-The Chicago Defender

runs a spectacular review
of her singing,

says everyone should hear
this young woman sing.

It kicks her up
to another level,

and she's becoming known
around the Black institutions.

##

-Marian wanted to study music

on a higher education scale.

-Her Aunt Mary encouraged her

to try to get with
a white music school,

and the woman at the desk
insults her,

says, you know,
"We don't take colored here.

What are you doing here?
You don't belong here."

-It was more a shock to me
coming from a young person.

If it had been an old person,
a sour-looking person,

it would never
have been quite a shock,

but that there was a young
person to come out bluntly

and say,
"We don't take colored,"

I was not prepared for it.

##

I felt for the moment
that all of my dreams

were just shattered
around my head.

##

##

-Prior to the '20s,
most people didn't graduate

from high school.

You were lucky if you had a year

or got through the eighth grade.

Anna really wanted Marian
to finish.

One thing that helped her

was that she always
looked younger than she was.

She graduated
from high school at 24.

While she's still
in her early twenties,

she meets Orpheus Fisher,
known as King Fisher.

-There was this very tall

and fine-looking young man
in the door,

and as I tried to get in,

he stretched his arms
across the door

and wouldn't let me in,

all the time
grinning and giggling.

-Orpheus Fisher came from
a solidly middle-class family,

all of whom had light skin.

He could pass for white, easily,
and sometimes he did.

-When I went in, I met another
very charming young man,

much shorter than the one
whom I'd seen at the door,

but I could see a very strong
family resemblance.

##

One brother would come over
to see me,

and then they would both
come together for quite a while.

And then one day, the one
who had stood in the doorway,

he moved his hand
across the back of the sofa

and touched my shoulder.

And I saw the little paper,

so I took it as discreetly
as I could and looked at it.

It said, "This affair
between you and my brother

has got to stop."

##

When my young man
was finished with school,

he would come over to our house.

We saw a good deal of each other
for quite some time.

We knew that we would marry.

##

-"My dearest Marian,

I shall be waiting for you
with open arms.

Love always, Orpheus."

##

-# Every time I feel the spirit
moving in my heart #

# I will pray

# Every time I feel the spirit
moving in my heart #

# I will pray

# 'Pon the mountain
my Lord spoke #

# Out His mouth
came fire and smoke #

# In the valley, on my knees

# Asked, "My Lord,
have mercy, please" #

# Every time I feel the spirit
moving in my heart #

# I will pray

# Every time I feel the spirit
moving in my heart... #

-The pastor decided
to take up a collection.

I remember him saying, "We want
to do something for our Marian.

She is like an old shoe."

-When you find somebody
talented like Marian Anderson,

what the church does
is recognize,

"Let us put some resources so
we can help build that talent,

because her success
is our success."

-We were invited to sing

at as many churches
as we could possibly go.

##

From the YWCA to the YMCA
to the Methodist Church,

to the Episcopal Church,
to the Baptist Church.

There was always something
given at different churches.

And sometimes in an evening

I would appear
at three different places

singing the same song,
which I played myself.

Sometimes I would arrive home
with a dollar,

sometimes a dollar and a half,
sometimes two dollars.

I was as busy --
you cannot imagine --

and my aunt would run with me
from one place to the other.

##

On one of these occasions,
Billy King showed up,

whispered in my ear
and said, "May I?"

I was absolutely thrilled
to pieces.

-Billy King was
a very talented musician.

He was an accompanist
for a variety of musicians,

including Roland Hayes.

-He suggested that
in order to raise money,

he would set up
a United States tour.

Their musical relationship
would take off.

##

-The tours that we took,
Billy and I,

carried us mostly in the South.

One felt that nowwe're getting
to have a career.

-In 1923, Billy King
had become her manager.

-We sang in the Negro colleges
and universities and churches.

##

-She couldn't have traveled
the way she did

in the South and the Midwest
in those years without Billy.

A single Black woman alone

would have been
very, very dangerous for her.

I think he wanted to marry her.

He was jealous
of Orpheus Fisher.

-I didn't have that same feeling
about Billy.

In a way, he was a boyfriend

without the other things
that go with it.

-"Is that Billy King
staying in his place?

I'm dying to see you
and hear about all of the things

that you have done
and planning on doing.

Always yours, Orpheus."

-Billy King
was able to make money,

and I was able to make money.

All of this
led up to bigger concerts

and longer tours

and appearances in places

where one might attract
the attention of people

who were not only church people
or college people.

And one day,
one picked up the phone

and called the Wanamaker Store.

I had never had the satisfaction
in my life

that I got the morning
I told Miss Hennessy

in as breezy a tone
as I could muster up

that my mother

would not be coming back
to work there anymore.

There was a small house
on Martin Street.

Mother and I put money in
together

to get the little house.

Then we went to Mr. Boghetti.

In the studio,

one had a completely new
and different training.

-Giuseppe Boghetti was
a dynamic vocal coach and artist

based out of Philadelphia,

and he was known
around the world.

Mr. Boghetti
had a full slate of students

and didn't feel that
he could fit in one more.

-The song which we sang for
Mr. Boghetti was "Deep River."

-# Deep river

-She was able to deliver
"Deep River" with such artistry

that Mr. Boghetti said
he would take her right away.

##

-Among the things which
Mr. Boghetti gave me to learn

was the "Ave Maria,"

and he gave me to learn
the three verses,

and it seemed to me

to be the longest
and the most drawn-out

and the most uninteresting
thing that there was.

And I did not know any German,

and it was really
a great trouble.

The "Ave Maria"
was put by the side.

-He had a particular approach
to classical music,

and it was, you know, bel canto,
which really favored sopranos.

Although she had
a three-octave range,

she sang
in the contralto mode.

-Contralto being the lowest
possible female voice.

She could sing that

to break your heart
into a million pieces.

But she also had a great top.
She had a great high C.

And her voice could live
above the staff,

meaning in soprano territory.

-I don't feel
that the singing of high C

was any trouble at all.

To me, it was a lark.

One did not confine herself

to being either soprano
or contralto or anything else,

but one was billed
as a contralto.

##

-"How did things go?
Did you do as well as expected?

I know you did.

Little Marian
always does her best,

even in loving me.

Ha! Ha!

Always, Orpheus."

##

-Orpheus came along and asked me

if I would run off with him
to marry.

Well, the thought of it
just terrified me.

##

I didn't have any idea
what we would do.

He was in school,
and I wasn't out of school,

and I knew that
if we should marry,

we should expect the things
that people do expect

when they get married.

I would have to give up my work,

I would have to do this and that
and the other.

##

I realized
that I could not marry then,

and I think
that he realized it, too.

##

And then he went off
to New York.

##

-In 1924, she gets a contract
to sing at Town Hall.

It was a mid-Manhattan venue

that was kind of
a testing ground for artists.

-My great desire
was to sing German

because it was one of the things
that Roland Hayes had done.

Mr. Boghetti gave me
four songs by Brahms.

In these translations,
you do not always find

the meaning of the same word
in English,

so it is not too unlikely

that in trying to be
very proper about it,

that your accents
go the wrong places.

-It's quite a leap for her --

a very discerning
New York audience.

-For me, it was a big day,

and I felt for all the world
like a prima donna.

Mr. Boghetti said to me
the house was sold out.

The house was maybe
just a third filled.

And all of the enthusiasm
and everything else

that I had built up
for this concert

seemed to fall to my feet.

##

##

-It just left a negative impact
for her to have to wear.

-I was embarrassed.
I didn't want to see music.

I didn't particularly
want to hear it.

And I was pretty sure
that I would choose

something else as my profession.

##

My mother said to me,
"My child, listen.

Whatever you do in this world,
no matter how good it is,

you will never be able
to please everybody.

But what one should strive for

is to do the very best
humanly possible."

##

It was probably a whole year

before I got really the urge
or felt that nothing else

would take the place
that music had taken.

-1924 was a dark time
for Marian Anderson.

Her Aunt Mary dies.

The love of her life,
Orpheus King Fisher,

married a white woman
and was passing as white.

She took blow after blow
in 1924.

-Quite often
when you have a calling

and there are these low points,

something will happen that will
get you back up on the horse.

-The NAACP awards Roland Hayes
the Spingarn Medal,

which is the highest honor
the NAACP gives.

-And he spoke with Walter White
of the NAACP

about having Marian Anderson
sing at this ceremony.

-She was just glorious
that night.

She gets her confidence back.

-It was a happy day when one
came back and began to sing.

-It was one of those
very dangerous moments

when she could have ended
and we would not have had

the Marian Anderson
that we come to know and love.

##

-Marian Anderson was the first
African-American artist

to be signed by RCA Victor.

##

And that recording

was Harry T. Burleigh's
"Deep River."

-# That Promised Land

-I went into the store,

and on the gramophone,
they played "Deep River."

My heart began to jump like mad,

and I was flustered beyond
anything you can imagine.

-# Oh, deep...

-That was my first experience

of hearing my voice
on a gramophone.

-# River

# Lord

# I want to cross over

# Into campground

##

-1925 turns out to be

a great sort of comeback year
for Marian Anderson.

Giuseppe Boghetti enters her

into an annual
musical competition.

-Mr. Boghetti said to me,

"Whatever happens, don't stop
until you get to the end

and you can do your trill."

-She's considered to be so good

that they cancel
the later auditions

and they just
give her the prize.

##

##

-The prize was to sing with
the New York Philharmonic,

and no African-American
had ever done that before.

So, all of a sudden,
she's breaking these barriers.

-There was a certain thrill

walking to stand
next to the conductor,

and as I remember it,
the stadium was just jam-packed.

And it was naturally one's
great, great, great moment.

##

##

-It just catapults her.

That's one of the things
that convinces her

that she can now go to Europe.

##

-Taking practically all the
money that one had saved up,

which was about $1,700,
and leaving behind in the bank

sufficient money
to bring me home

should everything go wrong,

off I went the first time
to England.

-When she got to Europe,
they could stay in any hotel.

There were no separate
drinking fountains.

Jim Crow
did not apply in Europe.

-Europe did not have
the history

that America has had

with African-American people
and people of color.

Didn't have that stain.

-Many of the cultural performers
began to recognize

that while they weren't getting
an opportunity

to play in the big venues
in the United States,

in Europe they were.

And they are paid better.
Mostly they are treated better.

-Josephine Baker became
a prominent French entertainer,

singer, dancer.

-Paul Robeson was cast across

from a white actress
at the Savoy Theatre.

This was something that was not
happening in the United States,

where you still had this
strong tradition of blackface.

-One felt a freedom in London.

I stayed in the house
of John Payne.

-He was a famous baritone.
He had this beautiful house.

It was a kind of boarding house
for Black musicians.

She met Alberta Hunter there.

She met Josephine Baker,
Paul Robeson,

Amanda Aldridge,
who was a great Black soprano

and famous within the Black
community, a voice teacher.

She becomes her student,

and she gets training
like she's never had before.

Prior to that time, she had only
spoken German phonetically,

and she hadn't tried
much Italian at that point.

She really wasn't a linguist
so much as she was a mimic.

-A lot of the stereotypes
that surround African-Americans

was that we couldn't even
speak English correctly.

How were we supposed to learn
French or German or Italian?

-In order to be
a first-rate artist,

a great deal of time
and a great deal of energy

would need to be spent
in this direction,

as well as with the voice.

-I don't think
she really expected

to do much concert singing.

She was going more as a student.

But she ends up
giving several concerts.

The most famous
is at the Wigmore Hall,

where she just dazzles
the crowd.

##

##

##

##

##

-It's an eleven months

that transformed her life
and her career.

##

##

-Having had a concert
in Chicago,

one received a card
on which there was,

"Mr. Rayfield wants to see you
after the performance."

Mr. Rayfield was a
representative of the Rosenwald.

-The Rosenwald Foundation, which
was a philanthropic organization

which had been started
back in 1915,

often gave
to Black institutions,

and they sometimes
sponsored individual artists.

-They asked me
what my desires were,

and I told them that I would
like very much to go to Germany

and learn something
about German lieder.

-In a few weeks, she was granted
a $1,500 Rosenwald grant.

-And off I went to Germany.

##

There came through Berlin
two men.

One was interested in talent

because he was a manager
in Norway.

He wanted to know if one
was available for concerts.

And then he said to me,

"If you come to sing,
this man will play for you,"

and that was Kosti.

I was, of course,
naturally very impressed.

-Kosti Vehanen,
the great Finnish pianist.

He was a very gentle,
absolute supreme musician

and perfectionist
in the same sense that she was.

And they just bonded.

-Kosti Vehanen, having listened
to Marian Anderson, and said,

"The voice is spectacular,
and the lady's spectacular.

"She will be,
as you say today, a hit."

##

-Kosti introduced me
to the music of Sibelius.

##

One day, Kosti said to me,

"When we go to Finland,
maybe we can go and see him."

"Oh," I said, "I doubt
that we could see him."

He said, "You wait.
I think maybe I can arrange."

-Sibelius was definitely
not just another good composer.

He was a national figure.

##

"Finlandia" is almost
their national anthem.

##

So you didn't just
meet Sibelius.

You asked for an audience.

-We were told before we went
that he would have

just a half an hour,
that we were to have coffee.

Sibelius was not quite as tall
as I had expected him to be,

whose head was quite bald
and quite like something

that had been chiseled
out of marble.

And, so, we sang.

##

##

And he came over to me,
embraced me and said,

"My roof is too low for you."

And then he said in a loud
voice, "Champagne, champagne!"

We stayed there a bit more
than the half an hour.

I came away
having felt very rewarded

for having had this experience.

And as if a sort of veil
or curtain had been lifted,

one approached
the songs of Sibelius

and the songs of Scandinavia
in a different way.

##

##

##

##

-Her first concerts
were sold out in a minute,

and people couldn't get tickets.

-They went in thinking they were
going to see this Black singer

who was going to be exotic,
and they came out thinking,

"I don't know
what I just experienced,

but I've never experienced
anything like this in my life."

-Many of them probably
had never seen a Black person.

-She was Black and she was tall
and had a Swedish name.

"Anderson" is among
the five most common names.

It's like "Andrew's son."

It was exciting.

##

-The success there was something

which one had not

really expected,

and it began to make one feel

that all of this
was very, very worthwhile.

The paper called it
"Marian Fever."

##

-People who knew her said that
she was an extremely intelligent

and focused woman
and a nice person.

And personalities matter in this
"fever" business, if you wish.

I mean, she was just
plainly loved by everybody.

-The audiences in Finland
made me feel

that I would like to give
lots of concerts in Finland.

##

##

##

We were in Norway,
Denmark, and in Paris.

##

-# Oh, what a beautiful city

# What a beautiful city

# Oh, what a beautiful city

# Twelve gates a to de city

# A-halleluh

When the success reached
the proportions that they did,

I was rather overwhelmed.

##

I wrote my mother and asked her

if she would be interested
in coming to Europe.

She replied that she would like
very much to come to Europe.

I went with her
to several of the places,

to the Louvre
and to Eiffel Tower,

many places that
she had read about before,

not knowing
that she would ever see.

-She meets Sol Hurok.

-Sol Hurok
played an enormous role

in shaping American culture
in the 20th century.

An impresario is someone
who takes on the financial risk

of presenting an artist

and then, of course, gets
a percentage of the box office.

-He had worldwide performers,
not just singers.

-He was like the Cadillac of
of the performing-arts world.

-When he endorsed someone,
that person is expected

to prove themselves
and to be what he says,

and, of course,
they usually are.

-He was very much in the know
about who was rising

and who was trending
and who was popular.

He goes to hear her at a recital
she gives at the Salle Gaveau

in the spring of 1934.

-Mr. Hurok came back
in the intermission.

I felt as probably some
marathon runner must have felt

after he had finished
a long race.

-He senses that this is someone
he could take a chance on,

and so he starts
to begin to think,

"Oh, how can I promote
this woman?"

##

-And people told him,

"You won't be able
to make a penny off her.

You won't be able to get her
any bookings."

##

-She goes to the Soviet Union.

At that point,
it was sort of an obverse image

of Jim Crow America.

There were a number of Blacks

who relocated
in the Soviet Union.

They didn't know
about the purges

that had already begun
by Stalin.

She never made any endorsement
of communism or of Stalin,

but just Russian people.

She was warned that
this was an atheistic regime

and she was not to sing any
Christian music, no spirituals.

-# I got a robe,
you got a robe #

# All of God's children
got a robe #

# When I get to Heaven,
going to put on my robe #

# Going to shout
all over God's Heaven #

-There was never any question
that she was going to bow

to that kind of intimidation.

-We went off the stage.

Before we got to the door,
we heard a great, great noise.

And I said to Kosti,
"What on Earth is going on?"

He said, "I don't know."

The people had their hands
over the edge of the stage

pounding on the stage.

I had never before nor since
seen anything like that,

so we went out,
and before we got to the piano,

somebody yelled out,
"'Deep River,' 'Deep River'!"

And someone else yelled,
"'Heaven, Heaven'!"

-# Going to shout all over

# God's Heaven

-There's sort of good news
and bad news.

She's now a celebrated figure,

and she gets
the best concert dates,

in part because of Sol Hurok,
who's arranging them.

The bad news is,
is that countries

like Austria and Germany,
rising fascism and Nazism,

and intolerance
towards all non-Aryans,

particularly Africans
and African-Americans.

So there are certain places like
Berlin where she can't sing.

-They ask one question --

"Can you tell us
if Marian Anderson is an Aryan?"

And that was the end
of all the correspondence.

-She canstill go to Austria.

##

-Marian Anderson's rise
to worldwide fame

is quite typically
an American success story.

It was not until 1935

when worldwide recognition
came to her.

She was invited to sing
at the Salzburg Festival,

a most dazzling opportunity.

##

-When the archbishop of Salzburg
hears Marian Anderson perform,

he immediately fell in love
with her voice.

He invited her
to come to Salzburg

to perform as part of
the famous Salzburg Festival.

-The problem was,
the Austrians in some ways

were almost ahead of the Germans
in their intolerance.

They won't put her
on the program.

##

-Salzburg had itself become
a hostile place.

A lot of Jewish performers
had stopped going.

And then in 1932, there's
an African-American baritone

named Aubrey Pankey.

His concert is broken up
by Nazi rioters.

They protest and say that
a Negro who sings German music

is jeopardizing German culture.

Salzburg has become
a hostile place

in so many ways
for Black singers.

But she went anyway.

##

##

-She became this symbol
of resistance.

-Very few people attended
the Anderson concert.

There was no publicity.

During intermission,
that small audience went out

and told people
how magnificent she was,

and so her audience grew.

Her supporters arranged
another recital

not far from
the Salzburg Festival.

-Everybody who was anybody
was there.

Arturo Toscanini was there.

-Toscanini was considered by me

the greatest orchestral
conductor of his time.

He was a giant.

-One had read a lot
about Toscanini,

but one had not seen him ever.

We knew beforehand that he was
going to be at the performance,

and, of course,
that doesn't make one so easy.

When it was over,

Madam Cahier,
she brought Toscanini backstage.

By the time he got back there,
I was just about speechless.

-He said to her,

"One only has this experience

once in a hundred years."

Sol Hurok took that compliment
and ran with it.

It was the beginning
of her international stardom.

##

-A master builds something

he knows that he doesn't have to
have the finishing tools

at the beginning of his job.

It was systematic.

It was a little more, a little
more, a little more each year.

##

It then happened that one was
billed as a special attraction.

##

You have to have
the right kind of handling,

you have to have the right kind
of publicity,

and you have to have, above all,

someone who has
a deep personal interest,

and that, I believe,
is what Mr. Hurok has had.

-Marian Anderson
learned a lot about life

while having her time abroad.

She was pursued
by nobility, aristocracy,

and the common man alike.

-She had a kind of brief
but torrid love affair

with a Russian actor
named Emmanuil Kaminka.

She never talked about it much.

She had passions about things
other than music.

-"Dear Ida, I've had
a most wonderful time.

The one A is quite fine looking,
quite tall, clever,

a good dresser,
and marvelous company.

B came, and I was prepared
to go for a walk with him.

A rushed to me and said,
'Are you going out?'"

"All I could do was giggle."

##

-"This is my fifth letter
to you,

and I shall write
until you answer my letter."

##

-"I really intended to write you

an entirely different
kind of letter,

but since it would take
more time than I now have,

I send you this one."

##

-"I was down to see your mother
the other night.

When I get lonesome for you,

I go to Martin Street and sit
and think and think,

and I can almost imagine
you here with me.

I must see you soon,

even if I must come to England
to see you.

I do think
you should come home now.

You have been away long enough.

I expect to be a free man
by December or sooner.

I'm yours always, Orpheus."

-"I'll be home in December.

Do take care of yourself and let
me hear from you immediately.

Always, Marian."

-We looked forward
with the greatest excitement

to the departure from Europe
for the United States.

##

We arrived
just before Christmas.

-New York, racially,
was very different

than the South and many
other parts of the country.

There was much more
mixing of races,

even though there still
was discrimination.

But Hurok knew that,
in New York,

presenting a Black singer
like Marian Anderson,

that it could work now,

and Town Hall
was a very important venue.

-The community
that supported Marian,

that loved Marian,
that wanted her to succeed,

was championing

for William "Billy" King
to be her accompanist,

and they wanted to see him
behind that piano at Town Hall.

-I can well understand
that, among my people,

there were those who felt that

if there was an opportunity
to be given,

that one of my own
should have the opportunity.

It had nothing to do
with my wanting an accompanist

of one color in preference
to one of another.

It was a thing of having worked
and feeling that at that time

I could give a better
performance with Kosti

than I could with anyone else.

##

##

##

##

-It was sold-out,

and it was filled
with illustrious stars

like Katharine Hepburn
and Gloria Swanson.

-"I stood with
Miss Gloria Swanson on one side

and Katharine Hepburn
on the other,

sharing my precious program
with both.

Your dressed stage appearance
was just too, too divine."

-"I wanted to come backstage
to see you, but I knew

that there would be so many
more important people than I."

-"I decided to wait for the day

when I could have you
all alone."

##

-She had the great triumph
at Town Hall

and then later at Carnegie Hall.

By the end
of the spring of 1936,

she had had dozens
of other concerts.

People are now talking
about her

as one of the greatest singers
in the world.

-Eleanor Roosevelt
invited Marian Anderson

to give a concert
at the White House in 1936.

-They wanted her
just to sing spirituals,

and she said, "No, no.
It'll be a mixed program."

-After Marian Anderson sang,

Eleanor Roosevelt
went over to her mother

and took her mother's hand

and walked her over
to meet and greet FDR.

And this was
a very intimate moment

between the Anderson family

and the residents
of the White House.

This was an enormous moment

in the changing patterns
of American history.

-As famous as she was, she still
suffered racial discrimination.

-# I'm trampin'

# Trampin'

# Trying to make Heaven...

-In hotels, I usually have
my meals in my room.

-# I'm trampin'

-I steered clear
of being embarrassed

should I go to the dining room.

-# Trampin'

# Trying to make Heaven
my home #

-You had, of course, every
problem with hotel bookings.

One is white, and one is Black.

All sorts of troubles

that Marian Anderson
hadn't seen in years

and, of course, that Vehanen
had never seen before.

-# My home

-Can you imagine
what it was like

performing for kings and queens,

then she would come back home
to her own country

and then have to get on
a Pullman car in a train

and have to sit
at the back of the train

because of the color
of her skin?

-# My home

-You cannot be expected

to give as good a performance
as you would hope to

if your mind
is partly on the fact

that you are someplace

but you certainly
are not wanted there

and you're trying to sing
to a group of people

as if your heart is full of love
and happiness,

and it isn't completely.

-# And make Heaven my home

-1937, she comes
to Princeton, New Jersey,

and she's trying to
check in to the Nassau Inn.

-And they turn her away.
Whites-only policy.

Albert Einstein -- he hears
about this and he rushes over

and invites her
to stay with him, which she did.

-# Hallelujah

-Dr. Einstein
greeted one warmly and said,

"We are very happy that you can
come and welcome into our home."

I remember thanking him
from the bottom of my heart,

and he seemed just sort of
to brush it aside.

-# Trying to make Heaven

# My

# Home

-She stayed with him
for the next 18 years,

every year
when she came to give a concert.

##

-Mr. Hurok sought to put one
in places that were the kind

that the other artists
would appear in,

and among such places,
naturally, Washington.

-Marian Anderson
was supposed to sing

at my alma mater,
Howard University,

but the space
was just too small.

-The Washington, D.C.,
School Board,

which controlled access
to the auditorium

of the all-white
Central High School,

turned her down
on suspicion that her request

was a subterfuge
for school desegregation.

The Marian Anderson
Citizens Committee,

one of the first examples

of interracial civil-rights
activism, was created.

-So they were looking
for a larger venue,

and Constitution Hall
was the largest.

-Which the Daughters of
the American Revolution owned,

a very old and distinguished
and conservative organization

for women who traced
their ancestry back

to the American Revolution.

And the D.A.R.
had a whites-only policy.

-We were out in San Francisco,

and we passed by a newsstand,

and I saw the article

"Eleanor Roosevelt takes stand."

-Eleanor said that they
had missed an opportunity

to lead with enlightenment

and that she could not be
a part of the organization

if it was going to miss
an opportunity in that way.

-No first lady had ever done
anything like this.

It was explosive.

Suddenly, everybody
was talking about it.

That made it a national
and international issue.

-Hurok tried to keep her away
from all of the controversy.

He protected her
from the ugliness.

-Walter White
was the head of the NAACP.

They had to find her
another venue.

-Lulu Childers, who was
a faculty member at Howard,

suggested almost
in an offhanded way,

"What about
the Lincoln Memorial?

There's never been
a concert there."

They have to get FDR's approval,

so they rush over
to the White House.

Of course, he'd been hearing
from Eleanor for weeks

about Marian Anderson.

He was so sick to death
of hearing about this issue.

They catch him just before
he's leaving for the train.

His answer was,
"She can sing from the top

of the Washington Monument
for all I care!"

##

##

They only had a week to prepare.

They had to arrange security.

Didn't know whether
it would be 5,000 or 50,000.

They were worried about
white-supremacist groups.

The concert was scheduled
for the afternoon

of Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939.

-We arrived in Washington.

-No hotel
would accommodate them.

They go for a soundcheck
around noon.

-We went to see
how the piano was situated

and about
the public-address system.

Already, there were
some people milling about.

##

-Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.

We're speaking to you
from the steps

of the Lincoln Memorial
in the nation's capital.

-Seated on that landing were
the members of the Supreme Court

and the Cabinet,
the Vice President.

-There were people who were
not fancy upper-class people

who would normally go
to concerts.

There was
an interracial audience,

which was a big deal in 1939.

-Genius draws no color line!

We are grateful
to Marian Anderson

for coming here
to sing to us today.

-When we went out
onto the steps,

my heart was throbbing

to the point that I could
scarcely hear anything.

It seemed to me
as far as the eye could go

there was a multitude such
in your wildest imagination.

##

As well as I know "America,"

for a while,
one was carried away

to the point
that the words did not come.

##

-# My country, 'tis of thee

# Sweet land of liberty

# Of thee, we sing

# Land where my...

-I as an individual
was not important on that day.

It happened to be the people
whom I represented.

I think if you have
something to offer

which can help a situation,

then I think you should do it
in your own manner.

-# Let freedom ring

-When all of us learn this song
in grade school, we learn it as,

"My country, 'tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty,
of thee, I sing."

Aunt Marian changes the words
so that you hear,

"Of thee, wesing,"

making it clear that this
country belongs to all of us --

Black people and white people

and the purple people
and everybody else.

-# Oh, the gospel train,
I'm a-comin' #

# I hear it just at hand

# I hear the car wheels
rumblin' #

# And a-rollin'
through the land #

# Get on board

# Little children,
get on board #

# Little children,
get on board #

# Little children

# There's room for many a more

# The fare is cheap,
and all can go #

# The rich and poor are there

# No second class
aboard this train #

# No difference in the fare

# And get on board

# Little children,
get on board #

# Little children,
get on board #

# Little children

# There's room for many a more

-I was one of the student body

surrounded by 75,000 people

standing out there
that cloudy day.

Marian Anderson
was the first one

who made me realize
that through art and music,

she could reach inside me

and just lift me
from all that negativity

and make me something else.

##

That Sunday will live forever.

##

-# Ave#

# Maria#

# Jungfrau#

# Mild#

# Der Erde und der Luft
Daemonen#

# Von deines Auges Huld
verjagt#

# Sie koennen hier nicht
bei uns wohnen#

# Sie koennen hier nicht
bei uns wohnen#

# Ave#

# Maria#

##

##

-Her appearance at the concert
was very carefully staged.

-We see this iconic image
that in many ways

registers as classic
Black ladyhood.

-It was sort of beyond
the bounds of American culture

to admit that a Black woman
could be beautiful.

##

-There's a long history
of negative portrayals

of Blackness in America.

There are figures trying
to show Black women

as really exotic
but also erotic.

But Marian Anderson,
with her own self-presentation,

just challenged so many people's
ideas of what Black women were.

She had this gracefulness to her
and this dignity,

and she held onto it at a time

when everything around her
was trying to strip her of it.

##

-The weeks after the concert
were pretty heady.

She went to the World's Fair
in New York

and was just lionized
by everyone there.

She went to the set
of John Ford's film

"Young Mr. Lincoln."

The crowd was more excited
about her

than they were
about Henry Fonda.

-Marian Anderson became Hurok's
highest-grossing artist.

She made $175,000 in a year.

That's an enormous amount
of money in 1941.

Today that would be worth
something like $3.5 million.

She was awarded
the Spingarn Medal,

the most prestigious award of
its kind presented by the NAACP.

She went from being simply
a very well-known performer

to being an icon
for Black Americans.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

invites Marian Anderson
to the White House

to sing for
the King and Queen of England.

##

-World War II probably
enhanced her reputation

as a symbol for civil rights.

-She visited Black troops
wherever they were,

and white troops, too,

but she made a point
of having special occasions

with African-American soldiers.

##

The next four years
throughout the war,

she was sort of a one-man band,

raising funds
for the war effort.

##

-Marian Anderson made a number
of very visible appearances

in support of Black Americans.

-The 1943 concert
for China Relief

was at the D.A.R.'s
Constitution Hall.

She chose
the China Relief War Charity

because it was Paul Robeson's
designated charity

and he was not allowed to sing
at Constitution Hall.

##

-To speak out
was not her manner of character,

but she stood by him.

##

She had a great triumph in her
personal life during the war.

In 1943, she's 46 years old.

After a 25-year
on-and-off courtship

with Orpheus King Fisher,
who's now a prominent architect,

they marry.

-After a while,
I got a letter from him,

which says,
"I think it's high time

that we should send our clothes

to the laundry
in the same bundle."

##

There was a business
of getting a home.

We looked in Long Island,

and I think we looked
in New Jersey for a place,

and then we finally
came to Connecticut.

-Danbury would have been like
the rest of the country.

The country still was
very segregated.

-There were no African-Americans
living there.

You know, they tried
to purchase 50 acres,

and they had to send Orpheus,
who looked white.

-To cut the deal
to sell the property

was probably a normal thing
for them to do,

but then they learn that
he's married to Marian Anderson,

and the deal now is off.

The sellers were saying that,
"If we sell you the property,

then the property around that
would have no real value."

-They expanded the purchase
to 100 acres.

They thought
that would scare them off.

But they did --
they did buy the 100 acres

and they had a real farm there.

-The horses that we have here,
when they see you coming,

they'll come up to the gate
and make a nice little sound

to let you know
that they're glad you're here.

-She had cows, pigs.

Not -- Not, you know,
those cute little pigs.

Hogs. Those great big old hogs.

They had Kerry Blue Terriers.

Beautiful, beautiful dogs.

##

Chickens.
They had some chickens.

So it was quite a place.

And I remember going there
when I was a kid

and just being totally
fascinated by all of that.

-I am particularly interested
in doing things with my hands.

##

-Not at all
what you would expect

of a woman of that stature

in terms of luxury
and everything.

It was just simple,

with meadows and a pond
where her studio was built.

-# Deep river

# My home

# Is over Jordan

# Deep river

# Lord

# I want to cross over

# Into campground

# Oh, don't you want to go

# To the Gospel feast

# That Promised Land

# Where all is peace?

# Oh

# Deep river

# Lord

# I want to cross over

# Into campground

-We would see more of him
than we would see of her

because she would be away
most of the time.

-The first concert date
looms up.

Her seven bags are packed.

They'll contain
no elaborate wardrobe.

Instead, her sewing machine,
a portable radio, typewriter,

and several cooking utensils.

-She gave more concerts per year
than any other artist

in the United States.

She was always on the road.

There were times when Marian
sang two concerts,

one to whites and one to Blacks.

They wouldn't allow
for any mixing.

But what she preferred
was vertical segregation.

She thought that was
a decent compromise.

-Vertical segregation
meant that the auditorium

had a line
down the middle from the balcony

down to the orchestra seats,

and Blacks sat on one side
and whites on the other.

-In 1951, she did a concert
in Richmond, Virginia,

and they had
vertical segregation.

And the NAACP,
they picket her concert,

and she was very embarrassed
and kind of hurt by it.

But Walter White and others
prevailed upon her and argued

and finally persuaded her
that it was just time.

-We asked that there be
absolutely no segregation

in our audiences.

And immediately, those persons
who had sponsored our concerts

had to make a choice.

##

Six to eight concerts
which we would ordinarily have,

we do not have.

##

-1955 -- that was the year of
the "implementation" decision,

the so-called Brown II where
they came up with the phrase

"with all deliberate speed."

##

It's the year when Emmett Till
was murdered in Mississippi,

a 14-year-old boy from Chicago.

##

It's the year that Rosa Parks

refused to give up her seat
on a Montgomery bus

and triggered
the Montgomery bus boycott,

which made
Martin Luther King Jr.

the American Gandhi

and introduced nonviolent
direct action on a mass scale

to the American
Civil Rights Movement.

-In 1955, Marian Anderson

practically ended
the racial barrier in opera

for people of color
at the Metropolitan Opera.

-Mr. Hurok gave
one of his fabulous parties.

Mr. Bing, who came over.

It was very casual.

And without any ceremony at all,
he said,

"Would you be interested in
singing with the Metropolitan?"

And so I said,
as casually as I could,

"Oh, I think I would."

-Rudolf Bing
was the general manager.

He wanted to have a Black person
on that stage.

He wanted someone
that had worldwide attention,

and she was absolutely
the best option for that.

-People warned Rudolf Bing
not to do it.

##

-The greatest dream
as one grew older

was to be able one day

to sing on the stage
of the Metropolitan Opera.

And then came the day.

When we came
to the Metropolitan,

there was a man who said
immediately, "Welcome home."

-I don't think there are
many people who debut

at the Metropolitan Opera
close to 60 anymore.

I don't even think
it was normal at that time.

-She made her debut as Ulrica
in "Un Ballo in Maschera."

She was the witch.

-Not a person that you think
would be singing Ulrica

because the character of Ulrica
is rather gross.

She didn't go there
to try to sing

the Ulrica
that they were used to seeing.

She came on with a dignity.

-I've read about her
that she didn't feel confident

with her acting skills.

-But she'd never fleshed out
characters on stage before

because she wasn't allowed
to do that.

In the operatic world,
the sopranos

always are the leading ladies.

I've sung some of
Marian Anderson's pieces,

and they were
out of my tessitura,

meaning they were
out of my range,

and my voice is classified
as a higher voice than hers.

It's one of the reasons
that I believe

that Marian Anderson
was not classified as a soprano

is because that would mean
that she would be

the love interest
of a white counterpart,

which was not accepted at all
at the time.

-The night of the performance,

there was electricity in the air

that you could almost cut
with a knife.

I was nervous.

##

##

-We are absolutely certain

that more could have been
brought to that part by me

had, at that time,
one had been a younger person.

##

##

##

-Although the voice
was not in the bloom of youth,

it still made its statement

in a huge, huge manner.

##

-The principals went out
onto the stage with me.

I was given just a little push
to stay out longer.

When Mother came,
there seemed to be a light

around her whole face.

She was just beaming.

And she said,
"We thank the Lord."

##

##

-One realizes that
it's absolutely fantastic

that in a lifetime
you can have a great wish

and that it can come true.

##

-She was the midwife.
She paved the way.

Robert McFerrin followed her
a short time later

to become the first
African-American male

to sing at the Met.

-She was the mother of all
that would come behind her.

-I say a vote of thanks

to the one and only
MadameMarian Anderson,

and I insist on that because
I think that we should have

all of the foo-fooness

and every drop
of the red carpet that's due.

-Kathleen Battle. Jessye Norman.

All these wonderful,
wonderful artists exist today

and are able to be artists
becauseof Marian Anderson.

-# Getting to know you

# Getting to know
all about you #

-The State Department chose her

as one of their
Goodwill Ambassadors.

-No American official
or a visiting dignitary

from any foreign nation
has ever before been invited

to speak at the Gandhi Memorial.

-She was representing
the free world,

but the free world
wasn't entirely free,

and Arkansas
was a good example of that.

-Miss Anderson,
would you like to sing

to Governor Faubus
in Little Rock?

-She was put on the spot

when Arkansas' governor,
Orval Faubus,

blocked the integration of
Little Rock Central High School.

-If Governor Faubus would be
in the frame of mind

to accept it for what it is,

for what he could get from it,

I would be very delighted
to do it.

# You've got to be taught
to hate and fear #

# You've got to be taught
from year to year #

No matter how big a nation is,

it is no stronger
than its weakest people.

And as long as you keep
a person down,

some part of you has to be
down there to hold him down.

So it means you cannot soar
as you might otherwise.

# Taught

-She was chosen
by President Eisenhower

as an alternate delegate
to the United Nations.

-Mr. President,
we are very pleased

that it has been possible
for the General Assembly

to adopt a resolution
on the Somali border question.

-It would be good
to be as solidly grounded

in your own information
about the country

so that you can make
a decent decision

with which you can stand
for a while.

-Marian Anderson becomes

a really very powerful delegate
and peace-builder.

It's not just that she goes
around the world and sings.

##

-She went to a number
of countries.

Her husband,
Orpheus King Fisher,

went with her.

She absorbed and respected

intellectual
and artistic communities,

spending time
with the famous partners

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

##

-Much of my time
was spent on the road

than it was spent at home.

##

We have no children,

but home, of course,

means the love of the people
for each other.

##

One has tried to make up

for any lack
of having had children.

One would be as understanding,
as gay,

and make the home
as interesting as possible

with interesting people,
with interesting things to read,

interesting things to do,
and then places to go...

so that one's life
is a thing of beauty.

-Their relationship
had cemented over the years,

through thick and thin.

He was a charming man.

For a male at the time,

to see his wife so famous

and so exposed to the world,

it must have been
a bit difficult to swallow.

King had a male ego,
that's for sure.

Ethel, her sister,
would always say,

"You know, it was not
that always easy

with our good friend."

The farm --
that was their cocoon.

##

-She was chosen to sing
the national anthem

at the inauguration
of John F. Kennedy.

##

-# O say, can you see

# By the dawn's early light

# What so proudly we hailed

-It was sort of a return in
some senses to the 1939 concert.

-# ...last gleaming

# O'er the land of the free

# And the home of the brave

##

-In 1962,
Eleanor Roosevelt died.

They had really become
great friends.

She attended the funeral.

At this point, her mother, Anna,
was really failing.

She was in poor health.

##

In 1963, she does her first trip

to Australia and New Zealand.

She didn't have a string
of very good concerts,

and the Australian critics
were pretty rough on her.

-Age shows.

A voice becomes less steady.

-I think it's difficult
for singers

if you continue to sing well

and there's interest
and invitations

for you to still come to sing

to make the choice of
when to bow out gracefully.

-She had a conversation
with Sol Hurok

and said,
"Maybe I should retire now.

I think I've come
to the end of the line.

I'm exhausted, and I think
maybe the critics in Australia

are right, and my voice
just can't carry it anymore."

But he talks her out of it.

After, she held a huge
fundraiser at Marianna Farms

for more than 200 people.

-The fundraiser was for
the National Association

for the Advancement
of Colored People.

-Roy Wilkins,
the head of the NAACP,

asked her
if she would open up

the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom.

##

-Do you know what happened
to Marian Anderson?

She was supposed to sing
"The Star-Spangled Banner."

She got caught in the crowd.
She didn't get up there in time.

And she arrived
up on the podium crying.

She was absolutely distraught.

It was one of these
incredible moments.

##

-# He's got the whole world
in his hands #

# He's got the big round world
in his hands #

# He's got the wild world
in his hands #

# He's got the whole world
in his hands #

# He's got the little bits
of baby in his hands #

# He's got the little bits
of baby in his hands #

# He's got the little bits
of baby in his hands #

# He's got the whole world

# In his hands

-She was mentioned several times
by the speakers

that her concert back in 1939
had created that space

as a kind of sacred space
for democracy and freedom.

-100 years of delay have passed

since President Lincoln
freed the slaves,

yet their heirs,
their grandsons,

are not fully free.

-Marian was a strong supporter
of John F. Kennedy.

-He had something
that people wanted to copy,

they wanted to emulate.

And I think he brought a spirit
to Washington

which had been lacking
for a long time.

-# My Lord, what a morning

-President Kennedy names her
as one of 31 recipients

of the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.

Before the presentation ceremony
could take place,

he was assassinated.

Ultimately, she gets the medal

overseen by the new president,
Lyndon Johnson.

-# ...fall

# When the stars
begin the fall #

-Her mother, Anna, dies,

and that was
a tremendous blow to her.

##

-# Sometimes I feel like

# A motherless child

# Sometimes I feel like

# A motherless child

# A long way...

-She finally decides
to have a goodbye tour...

##

...which begins, of all places,

Constitution Hall
in October of 1964.

-# A long way

# From

# Home

-She found another way
of being in public life

in the summer of 1965.

-From these honored dead,

we take increased devotion
to that cause for which...

-"The Lincoln Portrait"
by Aaron Copeland.

It's a portrait
of Abraham Lincoln

through his own words.

-"We cannot escape history,"
and he begins with that.

And I think it does not
only relate to history.

It relates to a lot of things
in our lives.

-She did it over 40 times.
It sort of gave her

almost a second career
for more than a decade.

-This evening, we are
recognizing five people

who by any possible standard

has achieved a level
of worldwide greatness.

-In 1978, the Kennedy Center
began their honors,

and she was one of
the first recipients.

-She truly overcame,
gave to the world of music

a voice
that Maestro Toscanini said

is heard only once in 100 years.

Those of us who have been
privileged to hear her

over our years
know what he meant,

and we remember other things
that happened along the way.

-# In his hands, ohh!

# He's got
-# In his hands

-# He's got the
-# Whole world in

# World in his

-# H-a-a-a-ands

-# Ohhhhh, yeah!

Whoo!

-Orpheus suffered
a couple of strokes.

He needed some assistance
all the time.

Aunt Marian
was with him every day.

-In 1986, her husband died.

At that point,
she's 89 years old.

##

-There were so many memories.

Sometimes you need
to bring them back.

It settles you down
if you get racing too fast.

##

-Her sister Ethel dies.

She becomes closer and closer
to her nephew, James DePreist.

-There came a point when
her resources began to dwindle

and it was not
economically feasible

for her to remain
at Marianna Farms.

-I approached Aunt Marian,
and I said,

"Each time we see you, Auntie,
we leave with a heavy heart

because we know that
we have to go on the road

and you're by yourself here,

and it's not --
it's not very pleasant for us,

and I'm sure
it's not pleasant for you.

So what about if you could come
and stay with us in Oregon?"

She looked out of the window
at the meadow.

##

She turned around
about a minute later,

and she said,
"I think it's a fabulous idea."

We reserved a week in July
to empty the house.

##

-We discovered trunks
in the basement at her home

that were filled with gowns
and mementos and regalia

and just all kinds of things.

She could tell me where she wore
this dress and where she got it,

and it brought back memories
for her of her experience.

-Marian kept everything.

-So, this was bottled
in March 1929.

-Every single thing.

-There were 4,600 vocal scores

in Marian Anderson's
sheet-music library.

Out of those 4,600, nearly
a quarter of them were by women

in hoping that
she would help promote them

to professional composers.

-Whether it was a simple wish
or greeting cards

or letters from everybody,

it was important to her

that she would respect
those people

who took the time
to think about her

and love her enough
to send a note.

##

-She was a very generous person

who often gave funds
and encouragement and mentorship

to younger Black women
who were classical singers.

-She gave me
one of her beautiful gowns,

a Karinska silk gown,
which I am wearing.

It was a tremendous gift

to go into the closet
of Marian Anderson.

The day that I visited
Marian Anderson at her home

in Danbury, Connecticut,
her nursemaid said to me,

"Oh! You just missed
Kathleen Battle."

She remains the great mother
that reminds you

every single time...
"Absolutely, you can do it."

-In many of her interviews,
she often would refer to "we."

She told me one day,
"There was no way

I could not acknowledge the Lord
who gave me such a gift.

##

I was born with it.

He gave it to me.
We had a partnership."

The "we" came from that.

-# Ave

# Maria

# Maiden mild

# Oh, listen

# To a maiden's prayer

# For thou canst hear
from the wild #

Those who wrote the music,

those who made the pianos
on which the accompanist plays,

the accompanist who actually

lends support
to the performance.

To go out without
any of these things,

to stand on your own,
even the voice, even the breath,

even the emotion that you have,
it's not of your doing.

# Safe may we sleep
beneath thy care #

There is no particular thing
that you can do alone.

##

The "I" in it is very small,
after all.

##

-When she went into a coma,

we sat beside her
holding her hand

and telling her
that we would be fine.

It was time to go.

She just died peacefully.

##

-She dies on April 8, 1993,

one day before the anniversary

of the Easter 1939 concert.

-# Hear our maiden's prayer

-The voice carries everything.

When you laugh, when you cry,

when you're angry,
when you're sad,

that of your ancestors,
it has all of that.

It has blood in it.
It has memory in it.

-# Ave

# Maria

-Even though we may not
be able to articulate

why that person's voice
moves us so much

because it's speaking to so many
different parts of who we are.

That's what her voice had,

this incredible power in it
to stop a nation.

She didn't have to say,
"No, this is not right."

Her voice said that.

-We are all here to have
a kind of living of our own

and to be recognized
for what we are.

Thank you.
And God bless you all.

##

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