Editing Marian Anderson (section)

== Lincoln Memorial Concert ==

The Daughters of the American Revolution's refusal to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in 1939 provoked national controversy that transformed a concert into a civil rights milestone. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest, generating publicity that brought the issue to national attention. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes arranged for Anderson to perform instead at the Lincoln Memorial, where she sang before an integrated audience of 75,000 on Easter Sunday, 1939.<ref name="anderson"/>

The Lincoln Memorial concert became one of the iconic moments of the civil rights movement, demonstrating through artistry what arguments alone could not convey. Anderson opened with "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)," infusing the patriotic song with meaning that the segregated nation had denied. The performance, broadcast nationally by radio, reached millions who had never heard Anderson sing and many who had never questioned the racial arrangements that the concert challenged. The image of Anderson singing before Lincoln's statue became a symbol of the struggle for equality that would continue for decades.<ref name="keiler"/>