biography
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1902–93)
|
| biography:
| Contralto concert and opera singer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She grew up singing in a church choir, and at age 19 began formal study. In 1925 she won a major vocal competition in New York City that gained her a career as a recitalist, but was always constricted by the limitations placed on African-American artists. After a Carnegie Hall recital (1929), she spent some years travelling across Europe and America, finding acclaim as perhaps the greatest living contralto. In 1939 she was refused permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall because of her race, and instead sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday before an audience of 75 000. In 1955 she became the first African-American singer to appear at the New York Metropolitan Opera. President Eisenhower made her a delegate to the UN in 1958, and she received many honours and international awards. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, she spent the next two years in a worldwide farewell tour. |
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