What is Marian Anderson?
'''Marian Anderson''' (February 27, 1897 - April 8, 1993) was an [[Americans|American]] [[contralto]] singer. She was the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in [[New York City]]. ==Early life== Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]. Her parents were African American [[Christians]]. All the Anderson family went to the Union Baptist Church in [[South Philadelphia]]. She first sang in public when she was six years old. Anderson went to Stanton Grammar School. Her family could not afford to send her to [[high school]]. They did not have enough money to pay for music lessons either. Until she was sixteen Anderson taught herself to play the [[piano]] and [[violin]]. The [[pastor]] of Anderson's church and other leaders of the black community raised money for Anderson to go to high school and have music lessons. After high school, Marian applied to an all-white [[music school]], the Philadelphia Music Academy. She was rejected for being black. In 1925, when she was 23 years old, Anderson won a singing competition. ==Career== In 1930 Anderson performed in [[Europe]] for the first time at [[Wigmore Hall]] in [[London]]. She liked Europe because people were less racist to her there than in the United States. 1935 Anderson did a concert at the [[White House]]. There she met [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], the wife of Franklin Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt and Anderson were friends for the rest of Roosevelt's life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fdrlibrary.org/|title=Home - FDR Presidential Library & Museum|website=fdrlibrary.org}}</ref> In 1938 Anderson did a 70-concert tour in the United States. In 1939 the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] would not let Anderson perform in the [[DAR Constitution Hall]] to an audience of blacks and whites. The District of Columbia Board of Education also said that Anderson could not perform at a white high school [[Charles Edward Russell]] gave a meeting about this the next day. At the meeting the Marian Anderson Citizen