Even with all the successes she was having in America, she knew she could do more. So she sailed for Europe where opera was born, and the citizens were more racially tolerant. Her grand tour included shows in Stockholm, Paris, London, Geneva, Budapest, Prague, and Moscow. Along the way, she achieved a level of star- dom in the classical music world no previous black artist ever had.
She returned to the States a global sensation. “It is hard to believe that any other voice now before the public on a concert stage is as beautiful as Miss Anderson’s,” proclaimed the Toronto Globe and Mail. By 1939, one of the largest and most important theaters Marian had not yet performed in was Constitution Hall in the nation’s capital. So when Washington DC’s Howard University requested the hall for April 9, Easter Sunday, Marian’s manager contacted Constitution Hall and asked for a reservation. Much to his dismay, the request was refused. The organization that built the hall had a policy prohibiting black artists from performing on their stage. This denial set in motion a series of events that ended with Marian giving the most influential concert of her lifetime.
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