A Terrific Story for you

While I was in Utah last week, I had the NEATO experience of visiting with my piano teacher. I studied with her from 5th through 11th grade. She was the best thing that ever happened to me during my adolescent years. With all the junk that happens during those years, both at home and abroad, she was the miracle that made me feel loved. So anyway, we went to visit her, I played for her (badly), and she told us this true story about HER very first piano teacher.

This story took place on Easter Sunday, 1939. This woman was in Washington, D.C. with her husband who was going to dental school. One day, they were walking down the street and they came across a bunch of people who were all walking in the same direction. She had a sense that they were headed somewhere important, and told her husband that they should go with those people. Soon, there were more and more people, and pretty soon they got looking around and realized that they were the only white people in a sea of black people. Her husband was nervous and told her he wanted to go home. She said she thought something important was going to happen and she didn't want to miss it. They ended up on the mall at the Lincoln Memorial, and it was Marian Anderson who they were there to see! The Daughters of the American Revolution had refused to allow her to sing for an integrated audience in Constitution Hall, so Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the organization and arranged for her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. Seventy-five thousand people showed up to hear her.

You can hear the clip and see some photos of that historic moment here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkPI0VKM4Fk