St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-01-05
Marian Anderson
Concert In Mpls.
Sunday, Jan. IA
Controversy With OAR. Recalled

Controversy With OAR. Recalled
The Forthcoming appearance
here on Sunday afternoon, Jan. ID,
of Marian Anderson, worlds fore
most contralto, calls to mind one of
the outstanding incidents of Miss
Anderson's career-an event which
also occurred in the month of JAN
uary.
This was the first appearance of
the beloved singer in Constitution
Hall, Washington, DC, on Jan. 7,
1943. Miss Anderson appeared in
behalf of the United China Relief
campaign-and at the invitation of
the Daughters of the American
Revolution. The concert marked an
other milestone in the struggle
against racial inequality - but it
was, of course, far from the final
milestone.
The circumstances through which
it was achieved were woven too
much out of coincidence to satisfy
liberty lovers. S. Hurok, manager
for Miss Anderson, in the regular
course of planning her national
tour, desired date to present the
singer in the Washington strong
hold of the OAR. His request
came to the OAR. at time when
they were planning a series of con-
certs for relief agencies.
Their democratic gesture of in
viting Miss Anderson to be one of
the recitalists in this laudable
cause was eventually proven an
empty gesture and an evasion of
the necessity to reply to Hurok's
request.
When Miss Anderson accepted
the invitation with two provisions:
first, that there be no segregation
in the seating of the audience; and
second, that her concert in the. Hall
be considered a precedent for fu-
ture appearances on those same
premises, the ladies cavalierly
turned her down. Thus, the SINGER
ity of their original invitation was
dubious, and the subsequent COM
promise, through Miss Anderson's
withdrawal of her second stipula-
ton, was merely a patina on their
unaltered prejudice.
To quote a report in the news
paper, PM of November 5, 1912:
$50 far as the Daughters of the
American Revolution are con-
cerned, the doctrine of all men are
created free and equal is so much
hogwash."
Nevertheless, there is no doubt,
that in the cause of freedom and
equality, Miss Anderson's concert
in Constitution Hall was dramatic
exercise of the social conscience
over the will of it's would-be de-
stroyers. The event proved to be
brilliant one, unsteady and in at
tendance.
The capacity of Constitution Hall
was stretched to it's 3,8O0-seat
limit. Among those present were
the sponsors of the concert, a par
tial list of whom included Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chinese
Ambassador Wei Tao-Ming, Su-
preme Court Justices Hugo Black
and William Douglas, Cabinet
Members Henry Morgenthau Jr.,
Harold Ickes, Claude Wickard and
Francis Biddle, Governor Clifford
Pinchot, several senators, under
secretaries and university heads,
and Archibald MacLeish, recently
named an assistant secretary of
state.
Miss Anderson will appear here
at the Minneapolis Auditorium
Concert Bowl as the third artist
featured in Mrs. Carlyle SCOTS
Sunday afternoon music series.
Tickets for the concert go on sale
this week at the Downtown Ticket
Office, 1877 Northwestern National
Bank Building, Minneapolis, and at
Field-Schlick's, st. Paul.