Marian Anderson was the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated American singers of the twentieth century. She became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States. She was recognized and adored for her talent as a recitalist and for the warmth, grace, and dignity that she embodied professionally and personally.

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, to John Berkley Anderson and Annie Delilah Rucker. Her father died when Marian was only ten. He had been accidentally struck on the head while at work at the Reading Terminal, just a few weeks before Christmas of 1909, dying of heart failure a month later at age 34.

Marian's mother went to work cleaning and doing laundry to support her three daughters. Marian was determined to give something back to her mother and began with the very first $5 she earned singing. 

The Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia, her family belonged, gave Marian her start as a singer in the choir, and continued to support her throughout her early career. Marian could not afford lessons with a professional voice teacher, so the church gave a concert to raise the money for her lessons. Her early career as a soloist grew from her performances at the invitation of other churches and church groups who had heard her sing at her church in Philadelphia.

Marian won first prize in the New York Philharmonic voice competition in 1925, and was immediately signed by a concert manager.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), refused permission for Anderson, to sing to an integrated audience in their Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned from the organization because of this.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, helped arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for Anderson. The concert had a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience was in the millions.

During World War II and the Korean War, Anderson entertained troops in hospitals and bases.

Later in 1955, she became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. This was the only time she sang opera on stage.

In 1957, Anderson sang at the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later made her a goodwill ambassador. Anderson worked for several years as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee giving concerts all over the world.

She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. Anderson sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The same year, she was one of the original 31 recipients of the newly re instituted Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anderson began her farewell tour at Constitution Hall on October 24, 1964. It ended at Carnegie Hall on April 18, 1965.

Anderson died of congestive heart failure on April 8, 1993, at age 96. She had suffered a stroke a month earlier. She died in Portland, Oregon, at the home of her nephew, conductor James DePreist. She is interred at Eden Cemetery, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.