Marian Elina Anderson (1897 - 1993)

Born 27 Feb 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Orpheus Hodge Fisher — married 17 Jul 1943 in Bethel, Connecticut, United States of America

Died 8 Apr 1993 at age 96 in Portland, Washington, Oregon, United States

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Biography

Marian Anderson is Notable.

Marian Anderson was a part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Marian Anderson was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Marian Anderson, renowned opera singer and civil rights activist, in 1955 became the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.

She was the daughter of John Berkley Anderson and Annie Delilah Rucker, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1897.^[1] In 1900 and 1910 she lived with her parents and her paternal grandparents, Benjamin, a former slave,^[2] and Mary Isabella Anderson, in Philadelphia.^[3] Her father died in 1910.^[4] At the age of six, with her aunt's encouragement, she began performing in the church choir and at various functions. After high school she was denied the opportunity to submit her application to study at the Philadelphia Music Academy (now University of the Arts) because she was Black,^[5] but in a 1925 competition, she won the opportunity to perform with the New York Philharmonic, and stayed to study music in New York. She first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1928.^[2]

While still living in her mother's Philadelphia household in 1930,^[6] that year a concert in Chicago led to a Rosenwald Fellowship, which afforded her the opportunity to study in Berlin. She toured Scandinavia and then Europe for several years, where she did not encounter the racial discrimination she had experienced in the United States. She returned to the U.S. in 1935, and by the late 1930s was performing about 70 recitals a year in the U.S., and also touring internationally. Yet some hotels and restaurants in the U.S. refused to serve her because of her race. Perhaps the most infamous instance of discrimination against her occurred in 1939 when she was denied use of the Constitution Hall concert venue in segregated Washington D.C. The resulting organized protests and national furor culminated in her open-air, integrated concert, broadcast to millions by radio, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, and, two months later, the Spingarn Medal presented by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.^[2]

Working and touring non-stop, she was counted on the census in Philadelphia in her mother's household in 1940.^[7]

On July 24, 1943, in Bethel, Connecticut, she married architect Orpheus Hodge "King" Fisher. ^[8]No children were born of the marriage. They bought a home in Danbury, Connecticut, where he built her an acoustic rehearsal studio. They lived in Danbury together until her husband's death in 1986; she remained there until 1992.^[2]

In the 1950s she was a goodwill ambassador for the US and a presidentially-appointed delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In the 1960s she regularly gave concerts to benefit civil rights organizations, and in 1963 she sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She retired from singing in 1965. On 14 Aug 1965, Marian christened the USS George Washington Carver (SSBN 656) at its launching at Newport News, Virginia.^[9]

She was 96 when she died, at her nephew's home in Portland, Oregon, on 8 April 1993;^[2][10] she was buried at Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Births, 1860-1906," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V1M9-BYQ : 25 September 2019), Anderson, 27 Feb 1897; citing Birth, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, Pennsylvania.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Wikipedia contributors, "Marian Anderson," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Anderson (accessed February 3, 2018).
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M37B-WQC : accessed 11 December 2017), Marion Anderson in household of Ben Anderson, Philadelphia city Ward 30, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 755, sheet 2B, family 47, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,472.

   Ben Anderson Head Male 47 Virginia

   Mary Anderson Wife Female Virginia

   John Anderson Son Male 28 Virginia

   Annie Anderson Daughter-in-law Female 26 Virginia

   Marion Anderson Granddaughter Female 3 Virginia

   Maude Anderson Granddaughter Female 1 Penna

   Mary Jeffries Stepdaughter Female 25 Penna

   Wallis Anderson Son Male 16 Virginia

   Virginia Roe? Niece Female 20 Virginia

   Grace Hughes Adopted daughter Female 5 Penna

4. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MG74-TK9 : accessed 11 December 2017), Marion Anderson in household of Benjamin Anderson, Philadelphia Ward 26, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 698, sheet 3A, family 49, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1400; FHL microfilm 1,375,413.

   Benjamin Anderson Head Male 61 Virginia

   Mary B Anderson Wife Female 61 Virginia

   Mary Anderson Daughter Female 30 Virginia

   Walter Anderson Son Male 24 Virginia

   Annie Anderson Daughter-in-law Female 37 Virginia

   Alice Anderson Granddaughter Female 10 Pennsylvania

   Ethel Anderson Granddaughter Female 8 Pennsylvania

   Grace Anderson Niece Female 11 Virginia

   George Stevens Adopted son Male 6 Maryland

   Ella Hurndon Mother Female 38 Virginia

   Clementine Hurndon Daughter Female 14 Virginia

5. ↑ National Women's Hall of Fame website, Marian Anderson
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHWW-YP1 : accessed 12 August 2020), Marion Anderson in household of Auma D Anderson, Philadelphia (Districts 0001-0250), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 109, sheet A, line 43, family 281, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2114; FHL microfilm 2,341,848.

   Auma D Anderson Head Female 48 Virginia

   Marion Anderson Daughter Female 26 Pennsylvania

   Alice Anderson Daughter Female 24 Pennsylvania

   Ethel Anderson Daughter Female 22 Pennsylvania

7. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQJV-1N6 : accessed 11 December 2017), Marion Anderson in household of Anna D Anderson, Ward 30, Philadelphia, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 51-922, sheet 10B, line 51, family 279, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3716.

   Anna D Anderson Head Female 67 Virginia

   Alice Anderson Daughter Female 32 Pennsylvania

   Marion Anderson Daughter Female 35 Pennsylvania

8. ↑ Connecticut State Marriage Records Online Index
9. ↑ USS George Washington Carver
10. ↑ "Oregon Death Index, 1903-1998," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZCC-5NF : 11 December 2014), Marian Elina-Blanc Fisher, 08 Apr 1993; from "Oregon, Death Index, 1898-2008," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2000); citing Multnomah, Oregon, certificate number 93-07778, Oregon State Archives and Records Center, Salem.
11. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 February 2018), memorial page for Marian Anderson (27 Feb 1897–8 Apr 1993), Find A Grave: Memorial #1811, citing Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave. Biography and photos included.

See also:

• This collection holds more than 4,000 images of Marian Anderson and her milieu, including photographs taken at Marianna Farm, photographic scrapbooks, oversize photographs, and photographs of friends, colleagues, and admirers of the renowned singer and Philadelphia native. https://www.jstor.org/site/upenn/marian-anderson/
• Wikidata: Item Q231923
• Tricia Williams Jackson, "Marian Anderson" in Women in Black History - Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience, (Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 2016) p. 89.