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"Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands"


  • Rita Coburn, Director
  • Producer philip gittelman, Producer
  • Co-Producer Rita Coburn, Producer

About the Project

Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands is a 90-minute documentary about a beautiful African American woman, a brilliant contralto and an international singing star in the twentieth century, who triumphed over racial prejudice and became an inspiration for America's civil rights movement.
She was honored as the first African American to sing in the White House and when she sought to sing in Washington's grand Constitution Hall, owned by The Dauighters of the American Revolution, she refused, because the was black, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was appalled by the ban and resigned her membership in protest. Answering this racial assault, the government invited Marian Anderson to sing from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. They had never been done before, and on Easter Sunday, June 9, 1939, Marian Anderson, performed what has justly been called "The Concert Heard Around The World", before 75,000 people and millions more over a live radio broadcast.
The concert had a profound effect on the country and a 10 year old Martin Luther King Jr, who had heard her on the radio, invited her to sing at his March on Washington, 24 years later. The announcement that her image will be joining Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt, on a newly designed five-dollar bill in 2020 will reawakens her story and interest n her life.