(Marian Anderson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940)
"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."Marian Anderson (1897-1993, Concert and Opera Singer)
Marian Anderson knew about people trying to keep her down. In 1939 the famous contralto sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday at a concert that was arranged by Eleanor Roosevelt after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Ms. Anderson to sing in Constitution Hall. Why? Because she was black.
When she was turned away from music school because of her race, she continued her training with a private teacher. In 1955, at the age of 58, she became the first African-American to perform at the New York Metropolitan Opera. In 1972 she was awarded the UN Peace Prize, and she received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991.
She soared anyway.
What keeps you from soaring? If the answer is nothing...tell me about how you do soar. Maybe your face will be on a stamp some day.
Wanda Tucker, Your Energy Coach
3 comments:
Hard to soar when you keep company with buzzards all day in the aviary salt mines...
I don't think I've found my wings yet. How old do you have to be before those are bestowed?
No age limit. Now that you are no longer swimming with sharks and can keep them dry, I think you are ready for your wings. Don't you?
I am a strong advocate for taking the high road, although I don't always succeed. This woman most certainly did that. I would like to have known her. No doubt she was "the better person."
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