A New Song on the Steps of Freedom

On Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, Marian Anderson stood before the Lincoln Memorial and opened her mouth to sing. Months earlier, the Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from performing at Constitution Hall because she was Black. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest, and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes arranged something far grander than any concert hall could contain. Now, beneath Abraham Lincoln's marble gaze, Anderson faced a crowd of seventy-five thousand people stretching across the National Mall, with millions more listening by radio. She wore a fur coat against the April chill, closed her eyes, and began with the words, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty." Her rich contralto voice carried across that vast open space, and grown men wept.

They had tried to silence her. Instead, God gave her a bigger stage.

Psalm 40:3 says, "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him." When the world strips away your dignity, the Almighty has a way of writing a song so large that the walls meant to keep you out become irrelevant. Anderson did not rage against the DAR that day. She simply sang. And her song became a hymn that changed a nation's conscience.

When others try to diminish you, remember: God is already preparing a stage they cannot lock.