Marian Anderson: The Most Modest Trailblazer

Classical singer Marian Anderson was one of the all-time greats — both as an artist, and as a cultural figure who broke down racial barriers. She is best known for performing at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after she was denied permission to sing for an integrated audience at Washington's DAR Constitution Hall. But she was much more than that — she helped shape American music.

Marian Anderson was so talented as a child that the church she attended took up collections to help pay for music lessons. That was when she first learned to sing, as Anderson told NPR member station WQXR in 1974 (in a that is now part of the Marian Anderson Papers at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania).