‘Seminal’ Easter concert at Lincoln Memorial commemorated in DC – Washington Examiner
The article discusses the commemoration of Marian Anderson’s historic Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which took place in 1939. This event, held by the National Mall and Memorial Parks, highlights its importance during a time of racial segregation in the United States, as Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall due to Jim Crow laws. The concert, attended by an integrated audience, was filmed by newsreel cameras and broadcast in Europe, providing hope during a turbulent period marked by the rise of Hitler. The National Park Service is organizing programs to celebrate Anderson’s legacy during national Park Week, including an event scheduled for Easter Sunday.Anderson is recognized as a pivotal figure in civil rights history, alongside other notable events at the Lincoln Memorial. The article also notes other commemorative activities taking place during National Park Week.
Marian Anderson’s ‘seminal’ Easter concert at Lincoln Memorial commemorated in DC
As the National Park Service holds its annual week to draw attention to its properties around the country to encourage tourism, the process is a bit different this year, as it comes at a time when the Department of Government Efficiency has reduced budgets. The Washington Examiner is taking a closer look at those effects and how you can celebrate at a park near you in the coming days and weeks. In Part 3 of our series, National Park Week: The state of America’s outdoors, we examine how the NPS is celebrating Easter.
The National Mall and Memorial Parks is conducting its annual tradition of commemorating Marian Anderson’s “seminal” concert at the Lincoln Memorial this Easter, with this year’s holiday falling within National Park Week.
Anderson’s concert, performed in 1939, was conducted outside the Lincoln Memorial after the singer was denied access to perform at Constitution Hall, as Jim Crow laws were still in use within the United States. Ranger Bob Herendeen explained to the Washington Examiner that Anderson’s concert was performed on April 9, Easter Sunday in 1939, and that the National Mall and Memorial Parks would perform a program on the history of Anderson and her seminal concert at the national monument.
“It was an amazing event, it was something that celebrates the importance of the Lincoln Memorial, not just — when I talk about it, not just for civil rights, it was important for civil rights, but it was also very important because the first newsreel cameras were there at the time,” Herendeen stated. “They filmed the event and that went into theaters in Europe, just at a time after Hitler had invaded Czechoslovakia, and so it was something that people in Europe who were very fearful of what was coming next, they saw in newsreels when they went into the theaters there and it gave them hope about what might be possible because it was an integrated audience here at the United States, you know, at a time of Jim Crow. So it was unusual for that reason, and the cameras captured all of that, so it was a big, historical event.”
The program by the National Mall and Memorial Parks documents the history of Anderson’s concert, including who Anderson was, her travels in Europe, and her return to the U.S., which included a visit to the White House during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in office. After being denied access to Constitution Hall, Herendeen stated that then-Interior Secretary Harold LeClair Ickes arranged her Lincoln Memorial concert.
Herendeen also told the Washington Examiner that Anderson is one of the most important historical figures connected to the Lincoln Memorial: “She ranks with Dr. King in the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963,” which she also performed at. He added that her performance is one of many historical events connected to the First Amendment that have taken place at the Lincoln Memorial.
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The event commemorating Anderson’s performance will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. It is one of several events National Mall and Memorial Parks is hosting within National Park Week.
On Thursday, the National Mall and Memorial Parks will reflect on the history of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and John Paul Jones, three key figures in the nation’s founding, at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Saturday marked the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War, when shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in 1775.
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