"My Country 'Tis of Thee" Excerpt

“My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (excerpted from Choosing to Participate)

Part 1: Eleanor Roosevelt’s dilemma

In 1939 world famous black opera singer Marian Anderson planned to perform in Washington, DC as part of her American tour. Organizers of the event knew that the only theater in the city large enough to hold the expected audience would be Constitution Hall.Three years earlier, Anderson was the first black artist to perform at the White House when she sang at the request of the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. But in 1939 Washington, DC was simultaneously segregated and integrated, both by law and by custom. The laws in Washington that mandated segregation in public schools and recreation facilities did not apply to public libraries or public transportation.[1] And even though blacks were customarily expected to sit in separate sections in white theaters, this custom was often abandoned and seating was mixed.[2] However, this was never the case in Constitution Hall, which was, and still is, owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)—a genealogical women’s organization whose members can trace their ancestors back to the patriots of the American Revolution.[3] Whereas many theaters had segregated seating for blacks and whites, the DAR adopted an uncommonly rigid policy that prevented black artists from performing at Constitution Hall. When the organizers of Marian Anderson’s concert approached DAR president Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr. directly, she bluntly stated that no Negro artist would be permitted to appear [there].[4]

Though Anderson herself rarely spoke out about civil rights, her concert organizers and other civil rights leaders, including Howard University Treasurer V. D. Johnston and NAACP chairman Walter White, were vocal in their outrage on her behalf. In response, White, a personal friend of Mrs. Roosevelt, who was herself a DAR member, encouraged her to take a stand. Roosevelt considered how to respond.

Civil rights issues had become increasingly important to Mrs. Roosevelt. Just a few years before, she had attended a civil rights meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. When police insisted on separating blacks and whites, Roosevelt, who had been sitting on the black side of the aisle, moved her chair to the middle of the room in a symbolic act of protest. At the same time, Roosevelt was fully aware that as the first lady any action she took would soon become national news. Her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had to handle civil rights issues delicately during his presidency. Many of Congress’s key committees were run by die-hard segregationists who resisted what they viewed as federal interference in their way of life. While Mrs. Roosevelt debated her response, the story of the DAR’s refusal to allow Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall had begun to receive attention in the press.

Part 2: Eleanor Roosevelt’s response

After strategizing with NAACP officials, black clergy, and the faculty and staff of Howard University, and United States Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR. In her letter of resignation, Roosevelt explained her actions: 

I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist. You have set an example which seems to me unfortunate. And I feel obliged to send in to you my resignation. You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.[5]

The next day, in her syndicated daily newspaper column, “My Day,” Roosevelt explained that she usually believed in working within organizations to change their policies, even if it required a painfully long process. However, in this case, she felt that the DAR had left her no choice: “They have taken an action that was widely talked of in the press. To remain as a member implies approval of that action, and therefore I am resigning . . .” .[6] The same day that this column appeared, Anderson stated:

I am not surprised at Mrs. Roosevelt’s actions . . . because she seems to me to be one who really comprehends the true meaning of democracy. I am shocked beyond words to be barred from the capital of my own country after having appeared almost in every other capital in the world.[7]

Roosevelt’s resignation and subsequent column made the DAR’s racist actions a national sensation. While she was not the first to resign, her bold stand drew widespread attention to the DAR’s segregationist policy, and newspapers around the country picked up the story. One New York Times editorial in particular captured the public’s outrage:

. . . Those who love music and are unable to perceive any relationship between music on the one hand and political, economic or social issues on the other will regret, as Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt does, that Washington may be deprived of the pleasure of hearing this artist.

If Miss Anderson’s inability to find a suitable hall in the national capital for her April concert is due to social or racial snobbery, all that can be said is that such an attitude is inconsistent with the best American traditions, including those which were born in the fires of the American Revolution. It is hard to believe that any patriotic organization in this country would approve of discrimination against so gifted an artist and so fine a person as Miss Anderson. In fact, no organization could do so and still merit the adjective patriotic.

We hope there has been some mistake. If there has not been, it is not Miss Anderson who has suffered most. She has, as before, the esteem and admiration of all those who love a golden voice and cherish American ideals.[8]

After Roosevelt’s resignation,  The New York Times published the results of a national survey about her actions:

The vote for the country at large is:

Approve of Mrs. Roosevelt’s action in resigning. . . . . . . . .67%

Disapprove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33%

Southerners dissented by an average vote of 57 per cent, but even some of the dissenters declared they had no objection to Marian Anderson’s singing as a paid performer. It was Mrs. Roosevelt’s “making a fuss about it” that they disliked.

A majority of Democrats in Mrs. Roosevelt’s own party approve of what she did, however, and it is interesting to note that most Republicans do likewise:

Approve—Democrats, 68 per cent; Republicans, 63 per cent.

Disapprove—Democrats, 32 per cent; Republicans, 37 per cent.[9]

Mrs. Roosevelt and others were still not satisfied. Despite the public outcry against the DAR’s policy prohibiting black artists from appearing at Constitution Hall, Anderson, who had given concerts all over the world, still had no place to perform in the capital of her own country. White, Mrs. Roosevelt, Anderson’s manager Sol Hurok, and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes came up with a bold plan that met with President Roosevelt’s wholehearted approval. They arranged for Anderson to perform as planned in Washington, DC on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. Defying the culture of segregation, they organized an open air concert—open to all people—on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. As reported in a New York Times article,

[A]n enthusiastic crowd estimated at 75,000, including many government officials, stood at the foot of Lincoln Memorial today and heard Marian Anderson, Negro contralto, give a concert and tendered her an unusual ovation. Permission to sing in Constitution Hall had been refused Miss Anderson by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The audience, about half composed of Negroes, was gathered in a semi-circle at the foot of the great marble monument to the man who emancipated the Negroes. It stretched half-way around the long reflecting pool. Miss Anderson was applauded heartily after each of her numbers and was forced to give an encore.[10]

The massive crowd extended from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument while all across the country radios turned to a national broadcast of the performance.[11] Reflecting on the concert in her autobiography, Anderson wrote, “All I knew then was the overwhelming impact of that vast multitude.… I had a feeling that a great wave of good will poured out from these people.”[12]

[1] Marya Annette McQuirter, “African Americans in Washington, DC: 1800–1975,” Washington: Cultural Tourism DC (2003), http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/information3949/information_show.htm?doc_id=208984 (accessed May 18, 2009).

[2] Allan, Keiler, Marian Anderson: A Singer’s Journey (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 188–89; 191.

[3] “Who We Are,” DAR National Society (2005), http://www.dar.org/natsociety/whoweare.cfm (accessed on May 18, 2009).

[4] Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 525.

[5] “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Letter of Resignation,” Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/tmirhfee.html (accessed March 4, 2009).

[6] Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, February 27, 1939.

[7] “Mrs. Roosevelt Indicates She Has Resigned From D.A.R. Over Refusal of Hall to Negro,” The New York Times, February 27, 1939.

[8] “Marian Anderson,” The New York Times, March 1, 1939; ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times, 17

[9] “Mrs. Roosevelt Approved,” The New York Times; March 19, 1939; ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times, 58.

[10] “Throng Honors Marian Anderson In Concert at Lincoln Memorial” The New York Times. April 10, 1939; ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times, 15.

[11] The Washington Post, April 10, 1939

[12] Anderson, Marian, My Lord, What a Morning: An Autobiography (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 191.