- Headline
-
Denies Prejudice Or Discrimination Moved D. A. R. in Marian Anderson Ban
- Publication Date
- Wednesday, April 19, 1939
- Historical Event
-
Marian Anderson Performs at the Lincoln Memorial
This database includes 945 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- AP
- Article Text
- WASHINGTON, April 18. (AP)—Daughters of the American Revolution warmly applauded their President General, Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr., today when she presented the D. A. R. side of the Marian Anderson controversy.
Denying that "prejudice, personality, or discrimination" in the D. A. R. management board's decision not to let the negro singer give a concert in Constitution Hall on Easter Sunday, she said the decision was rooted in District of Columbia customs.
Reasons For Refusing Concert
Without mentioning the singer, or Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose resignation from the D. A. R. drew much attention to the controversy, she listed these reasons for refusing the concert:
1. The hall was engaged for the afternoon of the date when a night appearance was asked and rules forbid rival musical attractions at the hall on the same day.
2. A rule was adopted more than seven years ago "because of unpleasant experiences in attempting to go contrary to conditions and customs existing in the District of Columbia." She did not outline the rule but apparently referred to one restricting use of the building by negro artists.
3. An exception to the rule would have been in violation of "signed agreements and customs for all similar properties in Washington" and would have society to legal responsibility for violation of its own agreements with concert bureaus regularly using hall.
4. An exception for the musical event would have meant that the society retreated "under fire of widely scattered groups and organizations many of whom knew nothing of the facts and whose interest had nothing to do with the real question."
Frequently Applauded
Mrs. Robert said agitation had begun and the society had been charged with bad faith before any request for an exception to the rule had been made to the D. A. R. board.
"When independence of action is threatened." she declared, "there can be no surrender."
Eight times during Mrs. Robert's 1,300 word review of the Anderson incident, delegates and members attending the opening session of the 48th Congress applauded. At the close there was lengthy standing applause. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Donna L.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Marian Anderson Performs at the Lincoln Memorial
- Marian Anderson and the Easter Sunday Concert, April 9, 1939 (National Archives and Records Administration, Rediscovering Black History)
- File copy of letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to president general of the DAR. (National Archives and Records Administration)
- Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library)
- February 26, 1939 - Eleanor Roosevelt Resigns from the Daughters of the American Revolution (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library)
- Marian Anderson Performs on the National Mall (National Geographic Society)
Bibliography
Arsenault, Raymond. The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert that Awakened America. Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
Black, Allida. “Championing a Champion: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Marian Anderson ‘Freedom Concert’.”Presidential Studies Quarterly (Fall 1990), 719–736.
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