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Monday, March 9, 2009

Flying with Marian Anderson

Are you spending time and energy being hateful and evil instead of loving, forgiving, and uplifting? Read this quote by Marian Anderson. For those who need a quick history lesson, in 1955 , Anderson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera . Eleanor Roosevelt showed her support for her by resigning from the Daughters of the American Revolution after they refused to let her sing at Constitution Hall . They had a policy to not allow African American performers on the stage.

So instead of singing at Constitution Hall, she gave a concert on April 9, 1939, Easter Day, at the base of the Lincoln Memorial and the concert was broadcast across the country. Certainly a much better venue! That day Marian Anderson's voice was not confined by the segregationist policy of the Daughters of the American Revolution but instead reached into THE HOMES OF AMERICANS THROUGHOUT THE NATION.

This shows that Marian knew a thing or two about evil and hatred. She wrote this quote:

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

Sistergirlfriends, who has time to do that? We need to spend our time flying.
Read more about Marian Anderson at:http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9504796 and http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/tmirhfee.html

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