Students Silenced for Singing Anthem at Lincoln Memorial
In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian Anderson perform before an integrated audience at Constitution Hall. The Board of Education of the then-segregated District also refused to let her perform in the auditorium of a white public high school. So Anderson turned to a symbol of freedom: the Lincoln Memorial.
That April, Anderson held an open-air concert on the steps of the monument to the end of slavery and the ideals of the Republic. Stepping up before a racially mixed audience of more than 75,000, Anderson began with “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”
Two months ago, at the same memorial, a group of students were confronted by a security guard for singing the national anthem.
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