When Marian Anderson Defied the Nazis

“The lesson of Anderson’s time in Europe is stunning in its simplicity and, for that reason, has been easy to dismiss. She showed up. Even under the threat of violence. Even with the shadow of Nazism looming over her like a dark cloud, she showed up. And she delivered what was becoming increasingly difficult to showcase amid so much racial violence: a brilliant demonstration of her full humanity at a time when white supremacists wanted to deny it.”

For the New Yorker, Kira Thurman, Member (2019–20) in the School of Historical Studies, tells the story of legendary African American contralto Marian Anderson’s European tour in the 1930s, when Anderson “defied the world.”

Read more at the New Yorker.