By Don Valentine
This is a new segment the Westside Gazette will feature thru the end of February. That is the conclusion of Black History Month. Hopefully it will educate or jog your memory on the legacy of our Black pioneers!
Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson
The 1st Lady took a courageous stand for Marian Anderson. Marian was a globally renowned opera star. It was Monumental for a White women to be that pronounced for a women of color.
The 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Her membership grew out of an incident with the famed contralto Marian Anderson, the first Black woman to sing with the Metropolitan Opera and perform at the White House.
In the 1930s, Miss Anderson had performed in Europe and had the third highest box office concert draw in the United States. Sol Hurok, her manager, and Howard University tried to schedule a performance to benefit Howard’s School of Music at Constitution Hall in January 1939. They were told the hall was unavailable due to a prior engagement. Another date was requested and it was again denied. It became clear that the hall’s owners, the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), had a policy against allowing Black entertainers on the stage. In 1932, Washington, D.C. had segregated facilities. Following protests over “mixed seating,” the D.A.R. adopted a rule excluding Black artists from performing at the hall.
Mrs. Roosevelt was given a D.A.R. membership card. She resigned her membership on February 26, 1939. She wrote the following day, “I belong to an organization in which I can do no active work. They have taken an action which has been widely talked of in the press. To remain as a member implies approval of that action, and therefore I am resigning.”
Think Melania Trump would do that?? How has that “Cyber bullying campaign” worked out for Melania? As they say you can “Talk about it or BE ABOUT IT !” That is why the A.K.A.’s Honored Mrs. Roosevelt!
