Marian Anderson: Once in a Hundred Years

(projector clicking) [Announcer] Will you enter mystery challenger, and sign in please?

(audience applauding) (dramatic music) [Narrator] Kings, queens, and presidents stood in her presence, as did audiences by the thousands.

She raised standing ovations in all the great concert halls of Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

She left dozens of recordings, 90 are listed in her discography.

At one time in America she was a household word.

She held a place of honor among the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, and in the pantheon of great American artists.

But today, even in her native Philadelphia, while her name remains familiar, the achievements that made that name have faded from memory.

But in her time, Marian Anderson's was a voice that would not be denied.

(Ave Maria plays) Ave Maria [N'Kenge]: I got exposed to Marian Anderson at age 12, because that's when I started taking private lessons.

(singing in foreign language) When I heard her voice, it was like, "What, like what is that, like how is that possible?"

(singing in foreign language) It was exciting, it was motivational for me as a young opera singer, a young black opera singer, because that wasn't the normal path that a black kid from the Bronx would take.

Living in the century that we're living in right now, it would actually be impossible to truly understand what Marian Anderson had to go through.

If you're going to talk about Marian Anderson, you have to talk about the world that we were living in before Marian Anderson came along and how the universe somehow placed an angel right in the middle of our world and we've been forever changed.

Ave Maria (midtempo jazz music) - [Narrator] In the 1920s and 30s, segregation, discrimination, even lynchings were still an everyday fact of American life.

But at the same moment, the creative spirit of black artists was exploding.

Ideas were bursting out of the ghetto and into the cultural mainstream like wildflowers through the cracks of a crumbling sidewalk.

In the words of writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, in the stage performances of Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters, the pain and loss of slavery and Jim Crow were erupting into a wellspring of art.

In the decades ahead, barriers would be shattered in the public schools, in the courts and legislatures and on the field of sport.

[Announcer] Robinson, after a foul, flashes a drive to left.

The leap by Slaughter is in vai!

It don't mean a thing, if you ain't got that swing [Narrator] And then there was the music.

In jazz and blues, African Americans were filling the pool from which all important American music would ultimately flow.

Ellington and Basie, Eubie Blake and Louis Armstrong were rewriting the rule book for composing, arranging, recording, and performing.

Oh, the shark has Pretty teeth dear [Narrator] Black women like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald were setting a bar for artistry (frantic scatting) (upbeat jazz music) that has yet to be raised.

You come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home Come on home, come on home ("Fidelio Overature" by Beethoven) [Narrator] But there was one fortress still to be stormed, the opera house, the one door that was still barred to African American vocalists.

So the symbolism was more than fitting when, in 1939, a black contralto from South Philadelphia, having been denied the right to sing in a proper hall, performed under the open sky in front of a standing crowd of 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial.

(dramatic piano music) My country 'tis of thee Sweet land of liberty [Narrator] And with that first note, another barrier was shattered.

But just to reach that milestone moment, well, that was a journey in itself.

And that story begins in a South Philly row house in February of 1897.

From the age of three, Marian Anderson's parents knew their eldest child was fascinated with music.

[Earl Harvey] Actually, the entire block would hear her warming up, because she had the kind of voice that once she started singing you could literally hear it all the way through the entire block.

You could hear her performing, you could hear the piano playing, hear her singing.

[Narrator] At six, she fell in love with the violin and raised enough money by scrubbing the stoops of her neighbors row homes to buy her own instrument for three dollars in a local pawn shop.

After her father brought home an old piano, at about age nine, Marian was transfixed.

It was around that time that she had an experience on a South Philly street that would change her understanding of the world and her place in it.

[Marian] I was walking along the street one day, carrying a basket of laundry that I was delivering for my mother, when I heard the sounds of the piano.

I set down my basket, walked up the steps and looked in the window.

I knew it was wrong to peep, but I could not resist the temptation.

I saw a woman seated at a piano, playing ever so beautifully.

Her skin was dark like mine.

I realized that if she could, I could.

[Narrator] Through that open window came the quiet confidence that would open dozens of doors for that little girl in the years ahead.

(upbeat jazz piano music) [Bill Jolly] Philly has been my hometown.

I learned from an early age that music was my love and my passion.

In first grade, we learned about Marian Anderson in a history book.

And I was into art back then and I said, "I want to draw her picture."

So I drew her picture in the first grade, not really knowing a whole lot.

As time went on, you kind of learned really the importance of Marian Anderson.

You know, for a person to go through the things that she went through and to be the first at so many things and have to deal with so much that would probably destroy a lot of weaker people, was a testament to her strength and her ability to use her music as really her weapon.

(jazzy piano music) Lord, I can't stay away Lord, I can't stay away Lord, I can't stay away Oh, I wish I hadda died in Egypt land, Lord [Brent Smith] When I think of the story of Marian Anderson, those of us who grew up in the church are somewhat familiar with the experience she may have had early in life.

People recognized that when put in front of a piano or given the opportunity to sing in the choir, that she had a gift.

[Narrator] It wouldn't be long before her family and community would recognize that even among the many rich voices that rose together in worship at Union Baptist Church, the little Anderson girl with the three octave vocal range had something exceptional.

[Loretta Lewis] Here at Union Baptist, she was a wonderful little choir member, and the congregation noticed just how wonderful she was, and they worked very diligently to collect money so that she could have lessons.

[Narrator] Alexander Robinson was the first of many mentors who would recognize in Marian both the talent and the strength of character that would have to coexist for a black singer to survive the hardships and pass the tests the world had waiting for her.

The first such test would come at age 12, when Marian's beloved father John Berkeley was killed on the job at the Reading Terminal Station where he worked.

That blow would set the family, Marian, her two sisters, and her mother on a difficult path moving from house to house with all of them working to make ends meet.

[Florence Quivar] The mother and her three daughters moved in with family, and they all raised these kids together.

Ms. Anderson seemingly had to stop school because everybody was working to make this unit, the family unit.

[Narrator] There would be harsh setbacks, like the experience teenage Marian had when she asked for an application at a prestigious Philadelphia music school.

[Marian] There was a line of people in the window.

There was a young girl behind the window, blonde, very pretty.

She looked over my head took are of one after another of the ones behind me until I was the only one left.

"What do you want?"

she said.

I told her an application blank.

She raised her upper lip as if she smelled something bad and said to me, "We don't take colored."

I promise you I was as sick as if she had hit me with her fist in the middle of my stomach.

[Narrator] Despite and maybe because of such trials, Marian would persist.

With her mother, aunts, and sisters behind her, and with the church community by her side, Marian entered South Philadelphia high school at 18, where she struggled with secretarial studies, and with the help of a series of teachers, continued to perform.

(upbeat classical music) La la la, lay la La la la la (singing in foreign language) [David Lofton] I am a master vocal coach here at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Loo, loo, loo, loo - Now, go up on ooh ooh ooh ooh, and change the top to the ah.

Loo, loo, loo, loo - Let it go!

- Yeah.

(melancholy classical music) [Lofton] Marian Anderson did not have a place like the Academy of Vocal Arts where the training is so intense, not only the vocalism but the linguistic study, the ability to move well on stage, all of those things, (singing in foreign language) which perhaps in the olden days one didn't find necessarily in one central location.

During her period of study, singers very often had a particular teacher who would take them under their wing.

Sometimes these teachers had homes in which the students would gather or even stay over a lengthy period of time and have lessons on a daily basis and learn many of the things pursuant to the culture in which they would find themselves.

Growing up in the inner city one didn't necessarily always find that opera and classical music was available.

The church, fortunately at that time, provided a great outlet for this because classical music was still very prevalent in the churches of all colors.

(classical piano music) [Thor Eckert] When you read the story of her life you realize that she had a lot of good training, vocal training, but the artistic growth was harder to do because there was there is so little opportunity for an artist of color to be able to perform in this country.

[Narrator] The Philadelphia Tribune was the preeminent Black newspaper in Philadelphia at the time and still is.

The paper's editor G. Grant Williams arranged for a then 20-year-old Marian to perform at the Academy of Music, which would become a springboard for her career.

In a letter to Mr. Williams Marian's mother spoke for the family.

[Marian's Mother] Your presentation of Marian on the Academy stage was more unique than anyone could have anticipated.

Then, when the two men brought in the enormous basket of flowers I was filled through and through.

I sat motionless, and it was with much difficulty that I suppressed my tears.

No one in that vast audience had an idea of the war that was waging in my breast.

I wondered if Marian's father could have seen her, how he would've expressed his appreciation.

(upbeat jazz music) [Narrator] At age 22, Marian would connect with the teacher who would connect her to her destiny.

In Giuseppe Boghetti, born Joseph Bogash, Marian would find a mentor who shared her outside status.

A Philadelphia Jew who took an Italian name to fit into the Eurocentric world of opera.

And again, when financial need arose, her congregation at Union Baptist would rise to meet it.

[Brent Smith] People realized in her church community that she had a gift, and it would take a village to do something like raise funds for her to get music lessons to get that classical training.

[Earl Harvey] I think it goes back to how she was raised.

Her family was very stable, and they were very close, and she felt that she could be anything she wanted to be.

She was raised in a church, and she was exposed to a network of people who took an interest in her early in life.

You'd be surprised how many young people, if given that opportunity and that kind of support system, can achieve great heights.

[Narrator] In 1928, at age 31, Marian made the first of many brave choices, booking passage to London to continue her studies.

[N'Kenge]Europe has always been much more open to African-Americans coming over there.

They've always been the first ones to truly appreciate our art and our talents.

[Narrator] But there again, there were barriers, starting with the language barrier.

(singing in foreign language) (upbeat classical music) To be taken seriously as a singer of European music meant not just to master the songs, but to speak, pronounce, and understand the languages in which they were composed.

[Thor Eckert] What happens so often with American singers, they learn everything phonetically first in the language, but as far as really understanding what's going on musically, and how the words match the music it's sort of alien territory.

She knew that was never going to work for her.

(singing in foreign language) (dramatic classical music) She went to Berlin and was able to get the studying she needed.

There were issues and there were difficulties, I know, but she found what she needed, she had the persistence and the perseverance.

[Allan Keiller] I think it was the courage, the fortitude, the patience, the deep humility with which she faced so many struggles for so many years.

Persevering in order to have a career.

I think that's what moved me the most and to see her eventually triumph.

[Narrator] After just four months of instruction with both native language and music teachers, Marian was determined to show Germany she was ready.

In the fall of 1930, just three years before Hitler would seize control and establish racism as the law of the land, Marian Anderson paid $500 of her own money for the opportunity to perform on a Berlin stage.

(singing in foreign language) (dramatic classical music) When the reviews appeared a few days later, her triumph was confirmed.

(singing in foreign language) "Her command of our language and of our world of feeling was amazing," said a Berlin critic.

[Thor Eckert] She knew how to adapt the sound and the color of the voice for each song that she was singing, and in a lot of these narrative songs, like the Schubert songs in particular where there are two or three characters that are being sung in the course of the song you get it, you'll hear this angelic light voice in one song, you'll hear this incredibly dark, almost sinister voice in another, and each song has its own completely distinct profile.

(singing in foreign language) (cheerful classical music) [Narrator] In 1934, she took Paris, then Moscow and Leningrad.

Her conquest of Europe culminated in a performance at the Salzburg Festival in Austria.

Afterwards she was introduced to legendary Maestro Arturo Toscanini who told her, "What I heard today one is privileged to hear only once in a hundred years."

(singing in foreign language) (slow, dramatic classical music) [Thor Eckert] She also understood that, and this is not always a given with singers, that fluency in a language is going to make all the difference between how you perform these things.

And that's why in Europe she saw to it that she learned all these things.

She's recorded in French, and I speak French fluently, and it's beautiful French, and I know that the Germans considered magnificent German as well.

[Florence Quivar] Obviously, the voice was incredible, if you listen to her recordings she can sing a high C and you think it's a soprano, or she sings way down here and you know it's a contralto.

So it was this incredible voice that gave her the saying, that a voice like this comes around once in a hundred years, and it was, it really was.

(intense, dramatic classical music) (men chattering and laughing) [Enrico DiStefano] This was John DiStefano, my grandfather's, Victor record and Victrola shop starting in 1918.

His love was opera.

Philadelphia has quite some history as far as opera and classical music.

The Academy on Broad Street is the oldest opera house in the West.

If you were a big star in Europe you aspired to come to Philadelphia to perform, The Met was here and not New York, Philadelphia was the place to go.

One of the things that's unique about the Victor Cafe is the place is steeped in history, and you can learn so much about the singers and composers from the past.

Their pictures all adorn the walls.

(bell ringing) We continue to hold the torch for opera and this is where you can come and enjoy some right in your face opera.

(singing in foreign language) Being here in the heart of South Philadelphia, lest we forget, Marian Anderson was a local.

Of course, we would have Marian Anderson on the wall in the Victor Caf and are happy to have her there for the tremendous contributions that she gave not only to voice, but also to civil rights and women's rights.

(singing in foreign language) [Iris Fairfax] I am from Philadelphia, product of a musical family.

And my mother is a contralto, just as Ms. Anderson was.

My mother was deeply, deeply influenced and inspired by Marian Anderson.

(singing in foreign language) That came down through the family to me.

I consider Marian Anderson to be the benchmark, really the gold standard for classical singers.

She was what I aspire to be even to this day.

Her dignity, her humility, her commitment to her art, her commitment to staying absolutely focused on nothing but her art, and doing her best to ignore the noises around her from the social political standpoint really had an effect on me.

(singing in foreign language) I never really thought that there was anything standing in my way as a black singer because of Marian Anderson.

(audience applauding) (tense classical music) [Narrator] Marian's return to America in 1935 launched on the stage of Town Hall in New York, where she was greeted with standing ovations and stellar reviews.

At age 38, and after two decades of painful rejection and laborious study, a star was born.

Less than a month later at Carnegie Hall, the stars of Hollywood and of New York society came out in force to hear what all the fuss was about.

[Allan Keiller] Well, she had become quite famous in Europe not only in the Scandinavian countries, particularly, but in Germany, and England.

Sol Hurok had come to manage her, who was the foremost manager of classical artists in the country.

So she had achieved a tremendous renown in Europe, and was beginning to have that kind of career in the states under Hurok's management.

(dramatic music) [Narrator] But for all the new doors that had finally opened for Marian in America, others remained tightly shut.

Because while racially mixed audiences were slowly becoming accepted in New York and Philadelphia, south of the Mason-Dixon line, segregation was still strictly enforced.

So in Washington DC, a decidedly southern city, when Marian played to a mixed hall at a black high school in DC the event attracted the interest of President and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt.

In a moment that would feel unimaginable to a black kid from South Philadelphia, Marian and her mother were invited to the White House for a performance and meeting with the First Family.

As Marian would recall years later, "Eleanor Roosevelt radiated a beauty as big as life itself."

In that first meeting, the two women would form a bond that would ultimately change them both.

(slow, dramatic jazzy music) Sometimes I feel like a motherless child [Michelle Jenkins] I am a classically trained singer and I have been living in Philadelphia since 2002.

Growing up I didn't hear of Marian Anderson even when I started taking voice lessons at 13.

It wasn't until college that I was made aware of Marian Anderson.

For us, African-Americans, it was really spectacular that there was this woman, this African-American woman who was an opera singer like wow, how inspiring is that?

My home is Her life, her legacy, the choices that she made have empowered me.

I stand here today making a choice to live my life in song, to be an artist because I know that it's possible because of people like Marian Anderson who have made it possible.

[Narrator] With her concert and recording career established, Marian was finally earning both the acclaim and the financial rewards of stardom.

[Earl Harvey] We left Carnegie Hall and we rode in her limo back to her apartment, and she had a white chauffeur, which was cool, okay.

So we get in the limo, got a guy holding the door for me, letting me in, said, "Come on in, Sir."

So we get to her apartment, and all of her staff was white.

For a young black kid coming out of Philadelphia, I had never seen a white maid, a white butler, I'd never seen a white doorman.

[Narrator] But success still had it's limits for a black artist in a white world.

And in 1939, fate brought Marian face-to-face with the gatekeepers of white privilege in Washington DC, in the person of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

[Allan Keiller] Well, she was going to sing a concert in Washington and her manager Sol Hurok wanted a venue that was large enough to include the large audience that she was likely to have, and they appealed to the Daughters of the American Revolution for the use of Constitution Hall.

The Daughters said no.

It was indicated in every contract issued by the DAR, white artists only.

(tense music) [Narrator] Requests had been made and denied before, but this time there was outrage.

The issue caught the attention of Mrs. Roosevelt, who made her feelings known to the nation by publicly resigning from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In a statement issued by her agent, Marian responded by saying, "I am not surprised by Mrs. Roosevelt's action [Allan Keiller] She was denied the use of Constitution Hall, and then the long search and aftermath of that denial took place in the weeks and months that followed and finally, it was Walter White, secretary of the NAACP whose idea it was, that Marian sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, as a kind of protest concert.

[Narrator] With Mrs. Roosevelt's backing and approval, the concert was scheduled and the date was set.

Easter Sunday, 1939.

[Allan Keiller] It's the first thing that people will talk about, when they talk about Marian Anderson.

The Lincoln Memorial concert.

It was the first concert of its kind, really, of a Black artist in kind of protest against discrimination and prejudice.

It led to a number of other events in Marian Anderson's life which helped to establish that legend.

(old newsreel music) [Newsreel Announcer] The nation's most impressive Easter demonstration.

75,000 massed before Lincoln Memorial to hear Marian Anderson, colored contralto, make her Capital debut at the Great Emancipator's Shrine.

The singer was invited by Secretary of the Interior Ickes, who attends with Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthal.

Spectators include Supreme Court Justice Black, New York Senator Robert Wagner and a host of notables, here to listen to the voice acclaimed by many as the finest in a century.

[Harold Ickes] Genius draws no color line.

She has endowed Marian Anderson with such a voice, as lifts any individual above his fellows, as is a matter of exultant pride for any race.

And so it is fitting that Marian Anderson should raise her voice in tribute to the noble Lincoln, who mankind will ever honor.

We are grateful to Miss Marian Anderson for coming here to sing to us today.

[Iris Fairfax] People talk about what's iconic.

Those pictures of her, singing outside at the Lincoln Memorial really have had an impact on me, that her response to adversity was to stand flat footed and dignified and close her eyes and sing.

[Allan Keiller] You can see her at the very start of the concert, very nervous as she held her coat around her.

Only when she began to sing America, did that nervousness seem to disappear.

She closed her eyes, I think she felt more comfortable, and began to sing.

I think that's how she was dealing with the enormity of the situation.

My country 'tis of thee Sweet land of liberty [N'Kenge] That was a moment in our American history that we can never, never forget because she united people.

Land where my fathers died Land of our pilgrim's pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring (audience applauding) [Iris Fairfax] For that time, that was the way that we, as a people advanced, was to calmly go about the business of what it is that we are here to do.

Ave Maria [David Lofton] That Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial in front of thousands of people was quite meteoric, it was monumental, it was historic.

It was a demarcation in history that can and of itself, never be repeated.

- I think that Marian Anderson stepped on that stage understanding that she was making a difference and being very, very proud of who she was.

(audience applauding) [Florence Quivar] She did it with the person that she was, the way she had been raised.

Grateful and humble.

[Narrator] The program Marian performed that Sunday, would be the springboard to launch her into what today we would call super-stardom.

From that moment on, she would be known not just as the greatest American singer of classical music in her time, but as a symbol of the power of art to overcome hate, of beauty to rise over ugliness.

[Marian] You lose a lot of time, hating people.

If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.

When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black.

I don't want them to see that my face is white.

I want them to see my soul, and that is colorless.

[Narrator] In 1955, at the age of 58, Marian would finally achieve the last of many firsts in her professional life.

Opening yet another door, as the first African-American singer to perform at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

[David Lofton] She wanted to sing more opera.

Unfortunately when she made her operatic debut at the Met, she actually was past her absolute prime in singing.

But it was just such a momentous occasion.

- I think that's a dream for any aspiring opera singer, to perform at the Met, 'cause it's the largest opera house in the world.

It was just wonderful and very inspiring to all of us, and not just me as a Black woman, but I think to everyone who aspires to be something bigger than what they are at this moment.

[News Reporter] Veteran members of the diplomatic corp, say that only several times in history has the king of Thailand broken precedent by rising to greet a distinguished visitor.

- Your majesty.

[Narrator] In the decades that followed her Met debut, as the civil rights struggle played out on the national stage, Marian became a kind of ambassador for tolerance to the wider world, a living example of the dignity and stature African-Americans were fighting to attain in her native country.

[Brent Smith] It's easy to put her within the civil rights movement, because that's a very momentous era in our history, but I'm most impressed by the fact that she was able to connect with so many different cultures of the world.

Oh, say can you see By the dawn's early light [Narrator] She sang at presidential inaugurations and toured the world, engaging with curious audiences, charming and disarming kings and common folk alike with her talent and grace.

...wide world in his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands [Narrator] Children in particular were drawn to Marian, and she to them.

- Good morning, boys.

It is a distinct pleasure to be here this morning, and I might bring to your attention that hate and fear are two things with which babies are not born, and I have this morning a song which epitomizes this statement.

(upbeat music) [Narrator] Although she would finally, at age 46, marry Orpheus Fisher, an architect whom she had dated on and off since her teens, a family of her own would not be possible.

She had fought too hard and long for the right to pursue her life's work, so some dreams could only be achieved at the cost of others.

[Earl Harvey] Marian was always on the road back then, so we got to spend time with her when she came home.

She would stay at her mother's and with her sisters, and she was very family oriented.

(piano music) [Narrator] After retiring as a singer after a farewell tour in the early sixties, Marian would finally be awarded the status she had long-since earned.

She would receive awards and honors at home and abroad, always with grace and humility.

But her greatest validation would come after her, through the door that she had opened, as each new generation of African-American children will now be born into a world where their voices matter.

[Mary Javian] Well, the subject of the Civil Rights Movement is taught at South Philadelphia High School.

The memory of Marian Anderson being at that school is part of what we use to inspire that students, so that they were more connected to the school's history.

Many of them didn't know about this musical past, so we painted murals, including a portrait of her and started to share some of her work.

It's been very rewarding to see how history in Philadelphia can change and be renewed and that thinking about the past and an artist like Marian Anderson can actually really inspire a whole new generation.

[David Lofton] It's wonderful that there is an award being given, named after Marian Anderson, each year.

Competitions named after Marian Anderson.

This name, in and of itself has come to represent a level of performance and achievement and acknowledgement in the annals of history, in terms of classical music.

[Narrator] For all the trails she blazed for others, Marian Anderson never set out to be a leader.

She saw herself as a follower.

She followed her artistry, her religious faith, her sense of right and wrong, her love of music, and her belief in herself.

That's what gave her the courage to change things.

[Sandra Grymes] A lot of people today might describe her effect on civil rights or social justice in a way that she was a game changer.

She would never have framed it that way.

She grew up in a different era, in a community of people who were oppressed.

And they had to get up every day and meet that oppression and overcome it.

And they were oppressed in obvious ways, not in some of the more subtle ways that we are oppressed today.

[Loretta Lewis] She was so important, not only to Philadelphia, but to the world.

She was a lady, she was an activist in her own way.

She didn't march, she didn't burn bras, she just set an example.

[Earl Harvey] I don't think her mission was to make a statement and stand out from a civil rights standpoint.

Her mission was to perform her craft to the best of her ability on whatever stage she was allowed to perform on and that was her gift and contribution to the world.

- Are you Barbara Streisand?

- No.

(laughing) - No, and that's ten down and no more to go, and you may now, oh you're going to be unhappy, unmask and meet Ms. Marian Anderson.

(audience applauding) (peaceful music) [Michelle Jenkins] She used her voice to make change, to create change, to open up doors, to create opportunities.

- The great ones all did that, and she clearly was one of the greats.

[Announcer] No one who has been to an Anderson concert can forget her compelling presence from the second she appears onstage, and the complete command of the audience that comes to her without any conscious effort to achieve it.

(audience applauding) (upbeat classical music) Oh, what a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city 12 gates before the city, hallelu Oh, what a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city 12 gates before the city, hallelu Three gates in the East Three gates in the West Three gates in the North and three gates in the South Making it 12 gates before the city, hallelu Oh, what a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city [Tom Brokaw] Marian Anderson died today at the age of 96 in Portland, Oregon.

Her legacy, long secure as a contralto of historic proportions for the pureness and passion of her voice and for the lesson against bigotry she gave the world.

12 gates before the city, hallelu (audience applauding) (upbeat music) - Prejudice, sometimes it's like a hair across your cheek.

You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it, because the feel of it is irritating.

That's a good line.

I like that one.

- It is my honest belief that to contribute to the betterment of something, one can do it best in the medium through which one expresses oneself most easily.

- I suppose I must insist on making issues of things, but that is not my nature and I always bear in mind that my mission is to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.

That's her, that's her.

(somber classical music) Let us break bread together - So this Let Us Break Bread Together, performed by Marian Anderson.

Let us break bread together - And it just, ah, it just speaks so many volumes when it comes to all the struggles that she had to go through.

But it's still about, Let Us Break Bread Together.

This is a spiritual that I learned as a very young singer.

I think 13, 14 years old, and there's lots of different arrangements of this song.

Face the rising sun, oh Lord, have mercy on me Let us praise God together - Let us praise God together on our knees.

I mean, there's.

Let us praise God together - So straightforward as to the meaning of this spiritual.

When I fall on my knees - It speaks about unity.

It speaks to the belief in a higher lord, and it speaks about being humbled.

If you please - And that was everything in the character of Marian Anderson.

(gentle, midtempo piano music)