Part of the Listen to This Audio Guide
Marian Anderson sings “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 (pp. 239-40):
More footage of the event can be found here. A recording of the entire event can be found in the online resources of the National Archives:
As the following juxtaposition suggests, Martin Luther King, Jr. almost certainly thought back to Marian Anderson when he gave his momentous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 (p. 240):
Anderson sings “Deep River”:
Her chilling version of Schubert’s “Der Doppelgänger”:
Nina Simone sings “Strange Fruit” (p. 244):
Compare “Der Doppelgänger,” in its original key:
Ian Bostridge, tenor, and Antonio Pappano, piano; EMI 42639.
And the four-note bass line of Monteverdi’s Lamento della ninfa:
Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano, with René Jacobs leading the Concerto Vocale; Harmonia Mundi 901736.37.
Two more photographs of the Lincoln Memorial event, from the Library of Congress:
