The Sound of Freedom
Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America
By Raymond Arsenault
April 2009
$25.00
320 pp
6.125 x 9.25 in
Hardcover
By Raymond Arsenault
Award-winning Civil Rights historian Ray Arsenault describes the dramatic story behind Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial - an unrecognized turning point in civil rights history - on the 70th anniversary of her performance--a "story that's well worth retelling," according to the New York Times.
Few moments in Civil Rights history are as important as the morning of Sunday April 9, 1939 when Marian Anderson sang before a throng of thousands lined up along the Mall by the Lincoln Memorial. She had been banned from the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall because she was black. When Eleanor Roosevelt, who resigned from the DAR over the incident, took up Anderson's cause, however, it became a national issue. The controversy showed Americans that discrimination was not simply a regional problem. As Arsenault shows, Anderson's dignity and courage enabled her, like a female Jackie Robinson - but several years before him - to strike a vital blow for civil rights.
Today the moment still resonates. Postcards and CDs of Anderson are sold at the Memorial and Anderson is still considered one of the greats of 20th century American music. In a short but richly textured narrative, Raymond Arsenault captures the struggle for racial equality in pre-WWII America and a moment that inspired blacks and whites alike. In rising to the occasion, he writes, Marion Anderson "consecrated" the Lincoln Memorial as a shrine of freedom. In the 1963 March on Washington Martin Luther King would follow, literally, in her footsteps.
Praise for Sound of Freedom:
“A tightly focused look at the political and cultural events that led up to and came after her famous 1939 concert. It’s a story that’s well worth retelling.”—New York Times Read full review. Read excerpt.
“On the 70th anniversary of that groundbreaking concert, The Sound of Freedom reminds readers of a turning point in American life.”—New York Times Book Review. Read full review.
"This is a perceptive, extremely well-written account of the events that led up to Marian Anderson's Easter Sunday concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Besides examining the civil rights aspects of the event, Arsenault also provides an outstanding account of African Americans and the arts in the early 20th century.Essential."—Choice
A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title of 2009
New Yorker piece by Alex Ross.
[Y]ou won’t find a richer examination of this event…The Sound of Freedom is a book to sing about.”—The Houston Post. Read full review.
“This vivid tribute to her work and times does [Anderson’s] memory a great service.”—Publishers Weekly Full review follows.
"Commemorating the 70th anniversary of African-American contralto Marian Anderson’s culture-shifting 1939 Easter Sunday performance at the Lincoln Memorial, the story of this underappreciated Civil Rights milestone resonates even louder in the wake of President Obama's election. Civil rights historian Arsenault (Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice) paints a detailed portrait of America's struggle for racial equality through one of the 20th century's most celebrated singers (of any color). Despite a 40-year career as a world-class entertainer, performing around the globe, Arsenault suffered innumerable racist indignities in her homeland, culminating in the controversial declaration by the Daughters of the American Revolution that barred her from performing in Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. In defiance, Anderson and her entourage arranged for the free, open-air Easter concert, which drew an estimated crowd of 75,000. The peaceful demonstration struck a vital blow for civil rights, and in particular for integration at Constitution Hall, nearly 25 years before Martin Luther King's march on Washington. Arsenault relies heavily on historical manuscripts and newspaper articles, but his vivid understanding of the players keeps the narrative fresh and insightful. Anderson died in 1993, at age 96, but this vivid tribute to her work and times does her memory a great service."—Publishers Weekly
"Marian Anderson rose from humble beginnings in Philadelphia to become a world-renowned contralto and one of the most prominent African American women of her time. Arsenault (John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History, Univ. of South Florida; Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice) adds to the large body of literature on Anderson with a book focusing on her iconic 1939 Easter concert. Having been denied the right to perform in Constitution Hall because of its white-performers-only policy, Anderson sang for 75,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Arsenault writes that this was the “first time anyone in the modern civil rights struggle had invoked the symbol of the Great Emancipator in a direct and compelling way,” with Anderson striking a historic blow for civil rights. While readers should be aware of Allan Keiler’s more general Marian Anderson or Anderson’s own autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, Arsenault’s book is a good one for serious students of the civil rights movement."—Jason Martin, Library Journal
Review being syndicated in South Florida by Scripps Southern Florida news, including Marco Island News, Naples News and eight other regional papers.
Weekend Edition interview.
WHYY Radio had lots of time for Marian Anderson's story. Here are a few links:
Ray was featured in a piece WHYY did about Marian Anderson and the anniversary: Celebration of her anniversary.
Ray Arsenault'son WHYY’s “Radio Times”.
Podcast, it requires Quick Time and takes a few seconds to download. Ray was interviewed for an AP story on Marian Anderson that ran inUSA Today, Fox News.com, Houston Chronicle, Charlottesville Daily Progress, Waynesboro News Virginian: Here's the story. “Outstanding…provides critical perspective on [Anderson’s] most significant achievement.”—Bookpage. Read full review. "In this moment of change and hope, Raymond Arsenault has gifted us with the perfect book for contemplation and activism. Deeply researched, vividly written, sparkling and dramatic, THE SOUND OF FREEDOM is more than a biography of Marian Anderson, her struggles and triumphs over time. It is a call to reconsider the enduring legacies of our segregated heritage, our culture of disrespect. From Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial concert "that awakened" the country to the cruelties and deprivations of apartheid America, every stunning detail of this bold and heartening book calls upon us to continue the still incomplete fight for liberty and justice for all."—Blanche Wiesen Cook, University Distinguished Professor John Jay College & The Graduate Center, CUNY author, Eleanor Roosevelt, vols I & II, III forthcoming Praise for Freedom Riders: "Moment by moment, he recreates the sense of crisis, and the terrifying threat of violence that haunted the first Freedom Riders, and their waves of successors, every mile of the way through the Deep South. Authoritative, compelling history.”—New York Times Sunday Book Review "Compelling!. A complex, vivid and sympathetic history of a civil-rights milestone."—Philadelphia Inquirer “Arsenault excels at contextualizing the concert, probing the ways in which Jim Crow laws and racial prejudices permeated all aspects of African-American life.”—Kirkus Reviews
