[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1386-H1388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1630
    H.R. 864, THE MARIAN ANDERSON CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIVE COIN ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from California [Mr. Brown] is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished 
gentleman in the well, Mr. Smith of Michigan, for his eloquence in 
maintaining the floor for such a period of time to protect me and my 
interest in getting here.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and 
extend their remarks and to include therein extraneous material on the 
subject of my special order this afternoon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jenkins). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
the centennial of the birth of Marian Anderson, one of the world's 
greatest singers, a champion for civil rights, and a leader in the 
advancement of global peace.
  One hundred years ago, on February 27, 1897, Marian Anderson was born 
to a poor family in Philadelphia, PA. She died at the age of 96, on 
April 8, 1993. She was a master of repertoire across operatic recital 
and American traditional genres.
  When one of her music teachers first heard her sing, the richness of 
her talent moved him to tears. One of the greatest conductors of opera 
and symphonic music who ever lived, Arturo Toscanini of Italy, claimed 
Marian Anderson had a voice that came along only once in a hundred 
years. But because of her race, her prospects as a concert singer in 
the United States seemed limited.
  However, the magnitude of her talent eventually won her broad 
recognition all over the world. She became the first black singer to 
perform at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955. By the time she retired in 
the mid 1960s, Marian Anderson was recognized as a national treasure.
  No one could have foreseen such a destiny for this girl born of a 
poor family in Philadelphia. Her father, an ice and coal salesman, died 
when she was a child. When her mother could not find a job as a 
teacher, Marian Anderson became a cleaning lady. She scrubbed people's 
steps to earn enough money to buy a violin. There was no money for 
piano lessons, so she and her sisters taught themselves to play piano 
by reading about how to do it.
  Marian Anderson received her first musical training in the choirs at 
the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia. The members of her church 
raised the money she needed to study with good music teachers. By 
saving money and getting a scholarship, she was able to study in 
Europe.
  A century after her birth, Marian Anderson remains a model for all 
citizens of the world and one of the greatest treasures of our country. 
However, we should not forget that she had to fight hard to win her 
place in history. Although she won a first prize in a voice contest in 
New York in 1925 and made an appearance that year with the New York 
Philharmonic, she was still unable to find operatic engagements and 
within a few years her career came to a standstill.
  It was only after she toured Europe to great acclaim in the early 
1930's that the American public began to pay attention to her. Even 
after her artistry was recognized, in her home country she faced racial 
prejudice on a more mundane level. Well into her career, she was turned 
away at restaurants and hotels. America's opera houses continued to 
remain closed to her for a long time.
  Yes, it was Marian Anderson who first broke the color barrier for 
Western classical musicians of African descent. There had, of course, 
been distinguished black musical artists before her, but it was she who 
accomplished what no one else had. With the gifts of her talent and 
determination, she established beyond dispute that African-American 
musical performers could be more than adequate to the task of excelling 
in the most demanding concert and operatic venues.
  Marian Anderson not only played a vital role in the acceptance of 
African-American musicians in the classical music world but also made a 
valuable contribution to the advancement of the arts, the status of 
women, civil rights, and global peace.
  In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR, refused to 
allow Marian Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall because of her race. 
As a result of the ensuing public outcry, Eleanor Roosevelt resigned 
from the DAR and helped to arrange a concert at the Lincoln Memorial 
that drew an audience of 75,000, an audience far larger than 
Constitution Hall could ever have accommodated.
  Mr. Speaker, I have brought this Special Order to the House floor 
this afternoon because 58 years ago today, on Easter Sunday, April 9, 
1939, Marian Anderson gave that concert on the steps of the Lincoln 
Memorial. No other occasion could be best suited for us to pay a 
tribute to the centennial of the birth of this great American.
  In my opinion, the one event for which Marian Anderson is most 
remembered in the public mind is her 1939 concert at the Lincoln 
Memorial, which became a landmark in the fight for civil rights. At 5 
o'clock in the afternoon on that day, a crowd of 75,000 people 
assembled at the feet of the Great Emancipator while radio microphones 
waited to carry her voice to millions across the land. As the sun 
suddenly broke through clouds that shadowed the scene all day, Marian 
Anderson began singing ``America the Beautiful.''

  The concert has been likened in impact to Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr.'s

[[Page H1387]]

``I Have a Dream'' speech delivered on the same site 24 years later, 
and I might add parenthetically that I had the honor to be present at 
that speech, an event at which Anderson also sang.
  The 1939 recital certainly set a precedent for the 1963 march, not 
only in that it was a watershed in the ongoing battle for civil rights, 
but in the manner through which this particular victory was won by the 
central person quietly but firmly avoiding strife and taking, instead, 
a moral high road that all people, regardless of race, have to admire.
  But while Marian Anderson is most remembered for this concert, it was 
only one event in a long life of breaking barriers and setting 
precedents. In 1955, she became the first black singer to perform at 
the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as I have already mentioned. In 
1957, the U.S. State Department sponsored a 10-week tour of Asia, in 
which she sang 24 concerts in 14 countries. She also sang at President 
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Inauguration in 1957 and at President John F. 
Kennedy's in 1961.
  Late in her life, she was frequently honored. She was awarded 24 
honorary degrees by institutions of higher learning. In 1963, she 
became the first recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 
Congress passed a resolution in 1974 to have a special gold medal 
minted in her name. Marian Anderson was a delegate to the United 
Nations, where she received the U.N. Peace Prize in 1977. In 1984, she 
became the first recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award 
of the city of New York. She was also awarded the National Arts Medal 
in 1986.
  It is clear that something must be done as a Nation to honor the 
centennial of the birth of this great American. Mr. Speaker, in closing 
my statement, I would like to take this opportunity to urge my 
colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support the passage of H.R. 
864, the Marian Anderson Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, a 
bipartisan bill to honor the centennial of the birth of Marian 
Anderson.
  The surcharges from the sale of coins will be distributed to the 
Smithsonian Institution and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 
the endowment of exhibits and educational programs related to African-
American art, history, and culture. The bill has a provision that 
ensures that minting and issuing coins will not result in any net cost 
to the U.S. Government.

  Marian Anderson's life is a model for all of us. I consider it a 
privilege to have introduced this legislation to pass on our memory of 
this great humanitarian to future generations in the form of her 
commemorative coins. I am honored to join with my colleagues today to 
pay tribute to the centennial of the birth of Marian Anderson.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that Congress remembers Marian 
Anderson on this day which marks the 58th anniversary of her Easter 
concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. For she is no stranger to 
Washington.
  This year also marks the 100th birthday celebration of Ms. Anderson. 
A native Philadelphian, born on February 27, 1897, Anderson became an 
internationally renowned contralto and an aspiring symbol to all who 
strive to achieve against tremendous odds. Anderson began her career 
like so many African-Americans, by singing in her church choir where 
funds were raised to help pay for her voice lessons. Anderson traveled 
the world singing arias and ending each concert with spirituals, for 
she was a spiritually centered individual.
  She was affectionately referred to as the ``Lady from Philadelphia''. 
In 1930, she toured Europe, winning from Toscanini the tribute ``the 
voice that comes once in a 100 years''. She became an accepted citizen 
of the world long before she was accepted as an equal citizen in her 
own country.
  The story of the Easter Sunday concert has been told many times in 
many ways. The announcement that Anderson was to be awarded the 
Spingarn Medal--the highest medal given by the NAACP--brought her 
national attention. Prominence of a different order came a few months 
later. Within weeks of the NAACP's announcement, Charles C. Cohen, 
chairman of Howard University's concert series, acting for Sol Hurok, 
Ms. Anderson's manager, requested the use of Washington, DC's 
Constitution Hall from the Daughters of the American Revolution [DAR]. 
The DAR refused to allow Ms. Anderson the use of the hall, admitting 
finally that no Negro would be allowed to perform there. This was a 
restriction, in fact, that had been in place for a number of years. 
Everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to actor Frederic March rose their 
voices in pointed outrage.
  As a result of this public snub of Ms. Anderson, First Lady Eleanor 
Roosevelt resigned her membership from the DAR. Furious with the 
shameful and bigoted action of the DAR, Lulu Childers, the director of 
music at Howard University, vowed that ``she'll sing here even if we 
have to build a tent for her.'' The solution that gradually emerged 
became one of the early defining moments in the history of peaceful 
protest against racial inequality in this country. Walter White and 
other NAACP officials, in discussions with Hurok, decided that Anderson 
should sing at the Lincoln Memorial, in the open air, where no barriers 
could be erected. White took his plan to the Department of the 
Interior, from whence it went to President Roosevelt, who gave his 
enthusiastic approval. So on Easter Sunday, April 9 1939, Ms. Anderson 
sang in front of a crowd of 75,000 instead of the 4,000 that would have 
filled Constitution Hall. The crowd stretched down both sides of the 
Reflecting Pool, to the base of the Washington Monument.

  Many of her own people in attendance would never have heard her sing 
because of the disabling Jim Crow laws that governed much of the 
country. These same laws forced Ms. Anderson to travel in the colored 
section of trains traveling South, stay at black-owned hotels or stay 
at friends and friends of family members during her tours, and enter 
concert halls from the back entrances to the very halls in which she 
was to perform.
  Easter Sunday Ms. Anderson was introduced by the Secretary of 
Interior, Harold L. Ickes. Secretary Ickes said, ``In this great 
auditorium under the sky, all of us are free. When God gave us this 
wonderful outdoors and the sun, the moon, and the stars, he made no 
distinction of race creed or color. . . . Genius, like justice, is 
blind . . . Genius draws no color line and has endowed Marian Anderson 
with such a voice as lifts any individual above his fellows.''
  In later years Anderson spoke infrequently and always reluctantly 
about the DAR affair. She was uncomfortable with controversy. The quite 
dignity with which she bore those now historic events, her refusal to 
speak any harsh words of blame or to be diverted from a belief that 
people will one day act more honorably, only served to enhance her 
reputation as a woman of great dignity and hopefulness. In her 1956 
autobiography, she wrote, ``I said yes, but the yes did not come easy. 
In principal, the idea was sound but it could not be comfortable to me 
as an individual. I could see that my significance as an individual was 
small in the affair. I had become, whether I liked it or not, a symbol 
representing my people. I had to appear.''
  Some people felt that she should have spoken up more often regarding 
racism and how she was treated however, she felt that your actions 
spoke volumes. She is quoted as having said, ``Remember, wherever you 
are and whatever you do, someone always sees you.'' Regarding racism 
she says, ``Sometimes, its like a hair across your cheek. You can't see 
it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it 
because the feel of it is irritating.''
  Quote from her nephew, Maestro James DePreist, conductor of the 
Oregon Symphony: ``For those who loved her singing, there was a 
uniqueness to the quality of that voice that was able to touch people 
profoundly. For those who have viewed her as a symbol against 
prejudice, her life was an example of the dignity of the person versus 
the absurdity of discrimination.''
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the 
gentleman from California, Mr. Brown, for arranging this important 
tribute to Marian Anderson.
  Today we honor the centennial anniversary of the birth of Ms. Marian 
Anderson, a woman renowned throughout the world for her extraordinary 
contralto voice, but more importantly for being one of our country's 
greatest shining, guiding stars herself. She was an eloquent and 
effective speaker who chose to fight prejudice through a dignity and 
grace admired world over.
  Marian Anderson led an amazing life attaining success and making 
history through her exceptional diligence. She was born in Philadelphia 
to a poor family, but they lived in a neighborhood rich in support. It 
was in this community that Marian Anderson got her start by performing 
in the Union Baptist Church choir, where her talent was noticed, so the 
community chipped in to raise money for her to begin voice lessons and 
expand on her talent. From here Marian Anderson began performing and 
winning numerous contests including the New York Philharmonic 
competition. Marian Anderson also performed in Carnegie Hall and then 
began her first professional tour that took her across the European 
Continent. She was well received, especially for her African-American 
spirituals.
  It is hard to imagine that Ms. Anderson was more accepted in Europe 
than in America where she was prevented from performing at Constitution 
Hall due to segregation rules. But

[[Page H1388]]

this ignorance could not equal the strength that Marian Anderson had, 
nor the power held by a dismayed Eleanor Roosevelt, who instead 
arranged for Marian Anderson to share her talent with an even larger 
audience. So in 1939, she gave a brilliant performance at the Lincoln 
Memorial on Easter Sunday, also broadcast over national radio. Later 
that year, she received more attention and was awarded the Spingarn 
Award for the highest and noblest achievement by a black American.
  This recognition was just the beginning of Marian Anderson's honors. 
In 1955, she broke the musical color barrier with her overdue debut at 
the Metropolitan Opera. Then in 1958, she was named by President Dwight 
D. Eisenhower to delegate status at the General Assembly of the United 
Nations. Over the course of her life she received 24 honorary degrees 
by college institutions; and she received medals from a list of 
countries. She also sang at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 
1961, and President Johnson gave her the American Medal of Honor. On 
her 75th birthday in 1974, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution to 
have a special gold medal minted in her name.
  It is obvious to see that Marian Anderson was one of America's most 
accomplished musical talents, but she is also so much more. Marian 
Anderson was a humanitarian who had the heart to make a difference in 
the world as well as open the doors of American concert halls for other 
African-American musicians who had been denied their place for far too 
long. Marian Anderson challenged the concepts of prejudice and won the 
world to her side through her talent, dignity and virtuosity.
  Mr. Speaker, Marian Anderson was and still is a true national 
treasure. She took brave steps in eliminating segregation through the 
power of song and spirituals that transcended race and cultures. I am 
honored to recognize such a heroic lady on the date which marks the 
58th anniversary of her concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I am also 
proud to be a cosponsor of the Marian Anderson Centennial Commemorative 
Coin Act and would urge my colleagues to do the same and join me in 
giving one last honor to the legacy of a lady, a musician, a civil 
rights champion, and a promoter of world peace.
  Mr. MALONEY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 58th 
anniversary of Marian Anderson's historic concert at the Lincoln 
Memorial. In addition, this year is the centennial anniversary of her 
birth. In honor of these significant events, it's appropriate that we 
take a moment to pay tribute to this very special woman and a long time 
resident of my hometown, who is not only acclaimed for her glorious 
God-given voice, but for the historic contributions she made on behalf 
of all African-Americans.
  Marian Anderson, of Danbury, CT, the first African-American singer to 
perform with the Metropolitan Opera, stands out as a leading example of 
African-American pride and achievement.
  As a young woman developing her singing career, Miss Anderson faced 
many obstacles, and was often the victim of racism. Probably the most 
widely known incident occurred in 1939, when, after triumphant 
appearances throughout Europe and the Soviet Union, she was prevented 
from performing at Washington's Constitution Hall by its owners. To 
apologize for that mistreatment, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited 
Miss Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 
1939.
  Miss Anderson proudly sang to an audience of 75,000 people, while 
millions more listened over national radio. Her inspirational 
performance that April day is considered by historians as the first 
crucial victory of the modern civil rights movement.
  Even after her artistry was recognized in the United States, Miss 
Anderson still faced racial prejudice on a daily basis. Well into her 
career, she was turned away at restaurants and hotels. Even America's 
opera houses remained closed to her until Rudolf Bing invited her to 
sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
  Throughout all of her trials and struggles, Miss Anderson did not 
give up. Her undaunted spirit fought on and her determination opened 
doors for future black artists that had been firmly bolted shut.
  The soprano Lenotyne Price, one of the earliest artists to profit 
from Miss Anderson's efforts, once said, ``Her example of 
professionalism, uncompromising standards, overcoming obstacles, 
persistence, resiliency and undaunted spirit inspired me to believe 
that I could achieve goals that otherwise would have been unthought 
of.''
  Soprano Jessye Norman said, ``At age 10 I heard, for the first time, 
the singing of Marian Anderson on a recording. I listened, thinking, 
this can't be just a voice, so rich and beautiful. It was a revelation. 
And I wept.''
  Later in life, Miss Anderson was named a delegate to the United 
Nations by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was the recipient of the 
Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Carter. She died in 1993, 
but her successful fight to give every individual an opportunity to 
achieve their own greatness, helped our country become a stronger 
nation. Her contributions will live on forever.
  I'm proud to join my colleagues for this Special Order and I'm 
honored to be a cosponsor of the Marian Anderson Centennial 
Commemorative Coin Act. Each of us must learn from the example set by 
Marion Anderson to eliminate hate and violence, and create a stronger, 
more tolerant America. Thank you Mr. Speaker.

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