The Voice That Rang From the Lincoln Memorial

On Easter Sunday, 1939, contralto Marian Anderson stood before the Lincoln Memorial and opened her mouth to sing. The Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin. But Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in protest, and the Department of the Interior opened the National Mall instead. Seventy-five thousand people gathered on that cold April morning — Black and white, young and old — stretching from the memorial steps to the Washington Monument.…