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The Birth of Marian Anderson
"I was born on Webster Street in South Philadelphia in a room my paretns had rented when they were married. I was about two years old when we first moved to my grandmother's. She had a big house, and there was going to be more room for the three of us and the new baby." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Marian's Father Dies
"Father received an accidental blow on the head while at work and fell gravely ill. The doctor discovered later that he had a tumor. As Christmas approached he lay helpless in his bed. And then, a short time later, Father died in our home on Colorado Street. My sisters and I did not put it into so many words that we were orphans. But we knew that tragedy had moved into our home, and we knew, too, that our lives would change." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Marian Begins Voice Lessons
"It was through a family acquaintance, John Butler, that I met my first vocal teacher. The lady he took me to see was Mary Saunders Patterson, a Negro who lived not too far from our house. It was through her that I learned how to sing." -Marian Anderson Autobiography My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Enters Voice Competition
"The Philharmonic Society in Philadelphia each year selected a soloist after a competition. I can see the room and the building in my mind's eye. At the end I received the certificate that went to the winner. The newspapers published reports of the contest and the name of the winner, the first Negro to take first prize, and this, in turn, caused people not of my group to be curious about my capacities." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Performance at Carnegie Hall
"Some time later I appeared at Carnegie Hall as soloist with the Hall Johnson Choir. I sang in R. Nathaniel Dett's 'Listen to the Lambs'. It was a good evening; the program was fine and the audience excellent." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Marian Finishes Touring Europe
"I continued my appearences in Europe that fall, and then began to prepare for my return to the United States to sing under Mr. Hurok's management. I had gone to Europe to achieve something, to reach for a place as a serious artist, but I never doubted that I must return. I was, and am, an American." Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
A Welcome Back: First recital in New York at Town Hall
"It was borne in on me that I had now stepped up to another level. I had been singing a long time, moving from one step to the next almost imperceptibly. My career had seemed to follow an almost natural course. But if there had been one appearence that seemed like a leap forward, this Town Hall event was it." -Marian Anderson Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Banned by the DAR; Performance at Lincoln Memorial
"All I knew then as I stepped forward was the overwhelming impact of that vast multitude. There seemed to be people as far as the eye could see. The crowd stretched in a great semicircle from the Lincoln Memorial around the reflecting pool on to the shaft of the Washington Monument." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography:My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Marian Marries Orpheus "King" Fisher
"King and I have had some lovely times together. He is an understanding person, and without such a man our marriage could not have worked out." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography: My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Marian Sings with the Metropolitan Opera
"There was electricity in the air that night, and there was more of the same the next week when the company brought 'The Masked Ball' to Philadelphia and I sang as a member of the Metropolitan in my native city." -Marian Anderson's Autobiography: My Lord, What a Morning (1956) -
Good Will Tour
"Anderson toured Southeast Asia as a goodwill ambassador. She performed 26 times to 12 different countries." -Roosevelt Library (1993) -
A Delegate
"Anderson was officially designated delegate to the United Nations, a formalization of her role as "goodwill ambassador" of the U.S. she played earlier." -Roosevelt Library (1993) -
Retirement
“Those who remember her at her height … can never forget that big, resonant voice, with those low notes almost visceral in nature, and with that easy, unforced ascent to the top register. A natural voice, a hauntingly colorful one, it was one of the vocal phenomena of its time.” -New York Times (1965) -
Marian's Death
"Marian Anderson, whose velvety contralto and dignified, affecting stage manner melted the hearts of music lovers around the world, and whose determination helped shatter racial barriers in the arts, died yesterday in Portland, Oregon She was 96." -New York Times (1993) -
75th Anniversary of Lincoln Memorial Concert
"The National Mall and Memorial Parks commemorated the 75th anniversary of Marian Anderson's historic Easter Sunday concert with a ceremony on Wednesday, April 9th of 2014, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial." -National Park Service (2014)
