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AP-National

Key events in the life of pioneering contralto Marian Anderson

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Published 11:59 AM

By The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Singer Marian Anderson is getting new recognition 30 years after her death. The pioneering Black contralto’s name will now replace Verizon’s on the Philadelphia Orchestra hall, a key cultural institution in the city she was born in in 1897. Anderson repeatedly experienced racism throughout her storied career, which included her becoming the first Black solo artist to appear with the New York Philharmonic. Anderson’s exclusion for a Daughters of the American Revolution performance led first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the group in 1939. Almost 25 years later, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anderson died in April 1993 after having a stroke.

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