An Incident in Contemporary American Life

When prominent African-American vocalist Marian Anderson was banned from performing at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall in 1939 because of her race, Eleanor Roosevelt, a friend of Anderson’s, resigned from the DAR in protest. The First Lady was determined to find an alternate venue for the concert. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes invited Anderson to hold a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939. Anderson performed for seventy-five thousand people at the Memorial, including many political leaders.

Mitchell Jamieson’s mural depicts Anderson as a small figure, surrounded by government officials on the steps of the Memorial. The artist concentrates on the diverse crowd in the foreground and the emotional expressions on their faces to emphasize the importance of the concert.

Unlike most of the other artists whose works are on display in the Interior Building, Jamieson was selected by a panel of artists through a scored competition of 171 entries. His mural was purchased as the result of a nation-wide fundraising effort called the Marian Anderson Fund Committee. Only 25 years old at the time, Jamieson depicts a monumental Civil Rights event that, through Secretary Ickes, has a particular connection to the U.S. Department of the Interior.