Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission - Lincoln Memorial Rededication Series - April 12, 2009

April 12, 2009

The second part of the Lincoln Memorial Rededication Series, the ALBC and NPS combined efforts to produce the Marian Anderson Tribute and Naturalization Ceremony.

On Easter Sunday 1939, contralto Marian Anderson famously performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from singing at Constitution Hall due to the color of her skin.

Marian Anderson, who was born in 1897, was described as having “a voice heard once in a hundred years.” Yet in 1939, she was denied the right to perform in Washington, DC’s Constitution Hall due to the color of her skin. Through the efforts of Anderson, the NAACP, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, arrangements were made to hold the concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

On April 12, 2009, seventy years after Anderson set the stage for the modern civil rights era, acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves performed at the Lincoln Memorial in a joyous Easter Sunday Concert paying tribute to Marian Anderson's performance.

Graves was joined by the internationally renowned a capella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock and the world famous Chicago Children's Choir. Founded in 1956 at the First Unitarian Church in Chicago, by the late Rev. Christopher Moore.

Sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and others, the tribute also featured a naturalization ceremony of 191 new American citizens representing 56 countries. Gen. Colin Powell, the son of two Jamaican immigrants, delivered the keynote address.

The picturesque day concluded with the U.S. Marine Band performing John Philip Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever."