Resolution 030401

..Title Also naming the 1800 block of Webster Street as "Marian Anderson Place." ..Body WHEREAS, Marian Anderson, acclaimed throughout her career as the world's greatest contralto, was born at her parents' home at 1833 Webster Street in South Philadelphia on February 27, 1897; and WHEREAS, Marian Anderson began her singing career at the age of six as a member of the Union Baptist Church Choir. She attended Philadelphia public schools and graduated from South Philadelphia High School for Girls. As a young adult she won a contest to perform with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, was awarded a Rosenwald Foundation Fellowship, studied in Europe in the 1920's, and performed over one hundred concerts throughout Europe to rave reviews. She returned to perform in the United States in 1935, and by the late 1930's, Marian Anderson was a leading box office success in the United States; and WHEREAS, In 1939, Marian Anderson planned to give a concert in the Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., but the Daughters of the American Revolution, the owner of Constitution Hall, refused her permission to use the Hall because she was African American. Nationwide protests arose, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR and, with the United States Department of the Interior, helped arrange the most famous performance of Marian Anderson's career. That Easter Sunday outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial, opened by Marian Anderson's rendition of "America," and attended by a live audience of 75,000 and millions more by radio around the world, created new opportunity for African Americans by awakening the country to the reality of racial prejudice in the United States; and WHEREAS, In 1941, Marian Anderson received the City of Philadelphia's Bok Award, given to the citizen of which the City is the most proud. She was the first African American recipient of the award, and used the $10,000 honorarium to establish the Marian Anderson Scholarship Fund for young singers; and WHEREAS, On January 7, 1955, Marian Anderson became the first African American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera; and WHEREAS, Throughout her life, Marian Anderson received a number of important honors and awards, including the NAACP's Spingarn Award in 1938, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and honorary doctorates from many universities. She was also named as a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations in 1958; and WHEREAS, Marian Anderson died in 1993 at the age of ninety-six; and WHEREAS, It is fitting and proper that the City of her birth further honor Marian Anderson's life and memory; now therefore RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, THAT the 1800 block of Webster Street shall also be known as "Marian Anderson Place." ..End