The Voice that Inspired Equality.

Marian Anderson was born in 1897 in Philadelphia. She displayed this talent as a child but her parents could not afford to send her for lessons to progress and, so, members of of her church community raised funds for her to attend music school for a year.

Her parents were both hard-working and loving but due to the racist nature of the laws that were governed, Anderson's parents were poor and consequently could not afford these lessons. However, her father supported her talent and bought her a piano for her eighth birthday after saving up for a long while. Due to the lack of funds, the prodigious Marian taught herself the piano to assist her stunning vocals. Her commitment to music and her "raw talent" impressed the church choir so much so that she gained the nickname 'Baby Contralto' and they raised around $500 to allow her to be taught under a well respected singer.

After over two years of studying, Anderson entered a competition with the New York Philharmonic Opera and got the change to sing at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York - the becoming of a magnificent career. Other opportunities soon followed and in 1928 she embarked on a European Tour.

Anderson became world famous. She was invited by President Roosevelt to perform at the white house and became the first African-American to have this honour. She was the first African-American to perform as a member of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Many of the years of her awe-inspiring career were shrouded with overcoming African-American prejudices and breaking down these barriers.

Despite Anderson's outstanding success and angelic voice, the racial divide in America was still there. Many American's did not accept Marian as a qualified singer or quantify her voice as professional, purely based on the colour of her skin. This segregation was most notably manifested in 1939 when she tried to book the Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. She was informed that there were no dates available by the Daughters of the American Revolution. This was a lie told, however, as the real reasoning was the policies implemented by the so called DAR that only white performers can book the hall.

When this injustice was released to the public, chaos ensued. A huge riot began, with influential figure Eleanor Roosevelt at the forefront with thousands of rightfully angry citizens. Roosevelt invited Marian to instead perform at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Anderson's incredible performance was in front of a crowd of an excess of 75,000 people and was broadcast live for a worldwide audience of millions.

In 1961, she sang at President Kennedy's inauguration speech and in 63' was honoured with the Presidential medal of Freedom. In 1991, she was honoured with the lifetime achievement award from the Grammy's.

She fought against segregation her entire life: her faultless performance at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 set the stage for the Civil Right's movement which Anderson was a pioneer for. She was an activist and this performance literally set in motion what would become the African-American Civil Right's movement. This woman, the power of her voice, inspired the likes of Martin Luther King's famous speech. You can watch her performance, here.

She is deemed to have the most powerful voice of the twentieth century but we aren't taught about this woman. Her music is not celebrated as widely as it should be and her contributions and inspiring acts behind the Civil Right's movement are not even recognised.

Thank you, Marian Anderson, for your infallible voice and your endless walk towards equality, parity and the rights of African-American's.