The Inspirational Life of Marian Anderson: Breaking Barriers in Music and Civil Rights
This podcast episode elucidates the remarkable life of Marian Anderson, a pivotal figure in American history renowned for her contributions to both music and civil rights. We delve into her profound impact on society, particularly her courageous performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which signified a monumental moment in the struggle against racial segregation. Our guest shares insights from his extensive research, revealing Anderson's dual legacy as an acclaimed artist and a trailblazing humanitarian. He emphasizes her unwavering faith and humility, qualities that shaped her character and fueled her philanthropic endeavors. Through this discussion, we aim to illuminate Anderson's enduring influence and the vital lessons her life imparts to contemporary society.
The dialogue unfolds with an amiable exchange between two speakers, who traverse the realms of personal reflection and historical significance. The podcast commences with a cordial greeting, which sets a congenial tone for the ensuing discussion. A notable theme emerges as the speakers delve into the life and legacy of Marian Anderson, an iconic figure whose contributions to the civil rights movement and the arts have largely been overlooked. The conversation highlights the profound impact of Anderson's groundbreaking concert at the Lincoln Memorial, an event that symbolized a pivotal moment in American history, transcending racial barriers and paving the way for future civil rights advancements. As the speakers reflect on the weight of Anderson's achievements, they articulate the necessity of recognizing her role as a trailblazer and a source of inspiration for generations to come. The dialogue is enriched by personal anecdotes and reflections on mentorship, underscoring the importance of guidance in shaping one's journey and aspirations. The speakers articulate their admiration for Anderson's character, illuminating her humility and dedication to philanthropy, which further cements her legacy as a remarkable individual who used her voice for the greater good. Overall, the podcast serves as a heartfelt tribute to Marian Anderson, encouraging listeners to engage with her story and recognize her enduring influence on American culture and society.
Takeaways:
- The podcast discusses the remarkable legacy of Marian Anderson, a significant figure in American history.
- Emil shares his personal journey and the influential mentors who guided him throughout his life.
- The conversation emphasizes the importance of setting achievable goals and the value of perseverance.
- Listeners are encouraged to explore the life and accomplishments of Marian Anderson through Emil's new biography.
Transcript
Well, Emil, welcome to the podcast, my friend.
Speaker A:How you doing today?
Speaker B:I'm doing just fine.
Speaker B:How are you doing out there?
Speaker A:I am awesome here in Iowa.
Speaker A:I can't complain about one thing.
Speaker B:Well, I'm in the City of Brotherly Love, and we just won the super bowl, as you know, and the city is still trying to recover from it, so I can complain about a lot.
Speaker A:Of things, I'm sure.
Speaker A:Is that the place that threw snowballs at Santa?
Speaker A:I think that was the.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I think that was our former mayor and governor Ed Rendell that did that during the game.
Speaker B:That was a long time ago.
Speaker A:You know, we all have our pluses and minuses of our little states, don't we?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:So I'm glad you're on the podcast.
Speaker A:I love to talk about this topic and kind of reliving the history of so many important people.
Speaker A:But before we get started with it, I want to ask you my favorite question.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
Speaker B:Well, my best piece of advice that I ever received was to learn how to set goals that are reasonable and always to pray and never give up on your goals.
Speaker B:That's the best piece of advice I can ever remember.
Speaker A:That's good.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:Who told you that?
Speaker B:I think it was my father.
Speaker B:My dad who was one of my heroes.
Speaker A:That's amazing.
Speaker A:Our parents have so much wisdom to offer us, don't they?
Speaker B:Yep, they sure do.
Speaker A:I'm curious.
Speaker A:At our advanced age, we always can look back at people who have, you know, been important for us.
Speaker A:Who are some people in your life who served as a mentor for you?
Speaker B:Well, as I mentioned, my dad was a tremendous mentor for me.
Speaker B:My grandparents, his parents, and my dad's friend, Jack Kelly, who happened to be the older brother of Princess Grace Kelly from Monaco.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:Remember her, don't you?
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker B:I hope.
Speaker B:And a host of other men from Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, where I spent most of my formative years in my teens and early twenties.
Speaker B:Yeah, they really were.
Speaker B:They served as tremendous mentors to me.
Speaker A:That's so cool.
Speaker A:So I'm curious about your journey.
Speaker A:So tell us about your journey, your personal story.
Speaker B:Well, I'm the oldest of nine kids from a strict Roman Catholic family in Philadelphia, which is a very Catholic city.
Speaker B:Dad started me as a 13 year old in his sport of rowing, which led to a lot of successes.
Speaker B:I was able to win a bunch of national championships.
Speaker B:I rode with Olympic champions all the time.
Speaker B:I received multiple scholarship offers from colleges and universities.
Speaker B:And after college I became a Navy pilot, got a commercial pilot's license after that, and became a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker B:I won't get into all the gory details of my business life, but it was very exciting and successful.
Speaker B:And while a Navy pilot, I had a near death flying experience, which I realize now that God wasn't ready to take me away.
Speaker B:For some unknown reason, he wasn't done with me yet at that time.
Speaker B:So here I am today.
Speaker A:Wow, Emil, that's an.
Speaker A:That's an amazing story.
Speaker A:So I see that you are Emil J.
Speaker A:Henry iii.
Speaker A:Tell us about the other two.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, usually I go by my middle name, J, which stands for Joseph, because for a lot of my life my grandfather Emil Senior and my father Emil Jr.
Speaker B:Were alive.
Speaker B:And I go by Joe because most of the doofuses that I used to hang out with didn't know how to pronounce Emile and they would just call me Emily.
Speaker B:And then I used to be like Johnny Cash, the boy named Sue.
Speaker B:Getting into a lot of fights, it made me pretty tough.
Speaker B:But I'm using a meal as my pen name now because it sounds a lot better than just Joe Henwood.
Speaker A:That's good.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:So you, you wrote a book about Marian Anderson.
Speaker A:And I did a little research myself because I honestly didn't recall most of her life, but kind of give us a brief overview of who Marian Anderson was and why she's so important figure in American history.
Speaker B:Well, Reverend Keith, if you don't remember or didn't know much about her, you are in the solid majority because there's not a lot of people around today left today who remember much about her.
Speaker B:I stumbled across her.
Speaker B:I was very fortunate.
Speaker B:Marian Anderson is one of the most underappreciated heroes of our American history.
Speaker B:She was the only one who, if you only want to find out a lot about her, just Google her and then look at her Wikipedia page and check out the links.
Speaker B:It will blow you away.
Speaker B:It really will.
Speaker B:Then you have to set aside a lot of time to do that because her Wikipedia page is long.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's a lot more there than I could ever cover here with the delimited time we're going to have.
Speaker B: Essentially in: Speaker B:And she brought.
Speaker B:This was in the nation's capital where these Jim Crow laws were very strong.
Speaker B:Washington was a very southern type segregated city back then.
Speaker B:It still is a little bit today, actually.
Speaker B:I lived there for three years and I Know it.
Speaker B:She broke through these barriers when she sang her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial because she was not allowed to sing in the largest indoor venue, which was Constitutional hall, because it was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution and they had a whites only performers policy there and it couldn't be broken.
Speaker B:They tried for two years to break it and they couldn't.
Speaker B: good friend of Marion's from: Speaker B:So then that really marked the very beginning of the modern civil rights era.
Speaker B:And that was 24 years before Martin Luther King's March on Washington with his I have a dream speech and 25 years before Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, where he issued a lot of help desegregating the country.
Speaker B:Anyway, her major accomplishments were breakthroughs in gender and racial barriers.
Speaker B:And she was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which proves it.
Speaker B:She was the full package.
Speaker B:She was the full package.
Speaker A:If I'm not mistaken, that concert that she did on the Lincoln Memorial, if I remember the numbers I saw, there were like 70,000 people who attended that heard her single.
Speaker B:Well, thank God for the prejudice of the Daughters of the American Revolution, because if she had sung in their Constitution hall, which only seated 4,500, she would not have had the opportunity to go onto the National Mall and sing in front of over 75,000 people live, which was broadcast live throughout the nation to millions.
Speaker B:And that had a lot of ramifications.
Speaker A:Also, and if I'm not mistaken also, I think I did my research that she was the first African American to sing at the inauguration.
Speaker A:Sing the national Anthem at Kennedys.
Speaker A:Right inauguration.
Speaker B:Well, I don't know if she was the first African American.
Speaker B:She probably was, but she was definitely the first person, whether white or black, to sing at two inaugurations for a Republican and a Democrat.
Speaker B:Doesn't that say a lot about her?
Speaker B:She sang in 57 for Eisenhower's second term and in 61 for John F.
Speaker B:Kennedy's first term.
Speaker B:Yeah, they knew who she was back then, even if they forgot now.
Speaker A:You know, as you wrote this book, what were some never before characteristics of her that you discovered that you included in your book?
Speaker B: cs, I would say the fact that: Speaker B:She said, wow.
Speaker B:She was a, like I mentioned the full package.
Speaker B:She really a very dedicated, holy Christian woman who was very humble and private.
Speaker B:And she never, never, ever exposed her private life or her family to the media, which is one of the reasons why a lot of people don't remember her, because she never even had a publicity agent.
Speaker B:She was an A list celebrity worldwide and she.
Speaker B:Publicity agent.
Speaker B:Can you imagine that?
Speaker A:Well, not today.
Speaker B:No, no, no, not today at all.
Speaker A:Can you share a story, anecdote from the book that highlights some of her generosity?
Speaker A:Because the season also had a history of generosity as well.
Speaker B: s of the Great Depression, in: Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B: And in: Speaker B:That's pretty serious money even today.
Speaker B:So she took the first award that she received was from the Philadelphia city, and she won $10,000 as Philadelphia's most outstanding citizen.
Speaker B:She banked that for a couple of years and then started up a program for young artists, especially African American artists who wanted to make their mark.
Speaker B:And she set up the Marian Anderson Scholarship foundation.
Speaker B:And that ran for 40 years.
Speaker B:40 years after that, she kept funding it and funding and funding it.
Speaker B:After the original $10,000, what was the rest of your question?
Speaker A:Oh, just an example of her humility and her generosity.
Speaker A:I appreciate that.
Speaker B:Oh, well, her humility was over the top again because she was such a dedicated Christian and she was a big believer, of course, in God's word, the Bible, and where it says in Matthew, I think, six, three, don't let the left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Speaker B:She gave all the money away, as much as she possibly could, anonymously and quietly.
Speaker B:All right, so she, she was a real force to be reckoned with.
Speaker B:And that's one of the other reasons people don't remember her, that she, she, she funded so many things.
Speaker B:One of the biggest things she did was she funded the building of the, the Children's Hospital here in Philadelphia, which is a worldwide nonprofit hospital which brings in children from all over the world and treats them for very rare, hard to cure diseases free of charge.
Speaker B:And it's been doing that very effectively ever since.
Speaker B:In Philadelphia, she also funded the place called.
Speaker B:It's the Philadelphia Orchestra's summertime concert venue.
Speaker B:It's called the Man Music Center.
Speaker B:Prior to the tune of two and a half million as well as she funded the hospital.
Speaker B:Two and a half million.
Speaker B:She wrote these checks out of her personal checking account.
Speaker B:Keith, can you believe that?
Speaker B:Quietly.
Speaker B:She did it very quietly and privately.
Speaker B:And when she.
Speaker B: In: Speaker B:She was a shutterbug.
Speaker B:Everywhere she went in the world she took pictures, brought them home to her home in Philadelphia and later on in Connecticut, had her own dark room and developed them and then just threw them in a box unlabeled.
Speaker B: iving all that memorabilia in: Speaker B: and: Speaker B:And now the University of Pennsylvania, which is a very prestigious Ivy League college, as you know, has in their library, their main library, which is enormous, they have a Marian Anderson Collections Center.
Speaker B: f writing my book starting in: Speaker B:So I was able to do it right here where I'm sitting right now from my kitchen table without even going to the library.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So her life is impressive.
Speaker A:I'm curious what inspired you to write her biography?
Speaker B:I think it was the Lord's hand at work.
Speaker B:Because When I was 9, 10, 11 years old, being the oldest of nine kids, I used to go and visit my grandparents home, which was in the same neighborhood and they were continuously playing Marian Anderson records, which I didn't particularly like at that age.
Speaker B:I would rather listen to rock and roll.
Speaker B:You know, it was big that back then, back in the late 50s, so.
Speaker B:But I listened and years, 60 some years went by.
Speaker B:By the way, I'm going to be 79 in July, so forgive me if I stumble every once in a while.
Speaker B:My memory is not what it used to be.
Speaker A:But no one's, no one's is at this point.
Speaker B:You're just a kid compared to me.
Speaker B:You know it.
Speaker B:So anyway, time goes by 60, 65 years.
Speaker B:And the Marian Anderson Awards was going to be happening at a big, the big Kimmel center, which is where the Philadelphia Orchestra is headquartered in Philadelphia, downtown Philadelphia.
Speaker B:I decided I was going to go to it.
Speaker B:And before I went, I got on the Internet, being a researcher.
Speaker B:I started looking her up and I found so much about her.
Speaker B:I said this can't be true.
Speaker B:It's got to Be urban legend.
Speaker B:No one person could have done all this stuff.
Speaker B:So I was concerned because a friend of mine had asked me, who was a philanthropist, asked me to put together a pamphlet so he could circulate it among his philanthropic friends to raise money for the.
Speaker B:The Marian Anderson Museum, which is here in Philadelphia.
Speaker B:And as I was putting it together, I said, I can't publish this unless I really know it's true.
Speaker B:So I called up my brother, who had just retired as the chief homicide detective in Philadelphia.
Speaker B:He was a cop.
Speaker B:And I said, jim, how do you investigate somebody and know that what you're finding is true?
Speaker B:And he said, well, before we take anybody into court on a murder one charge, we do a timeline.
Speaker B:And if everything fits reasonably well within that timeline and you check it out, it's probably true.
Speaker B:So that's what I did.
Speaker B:And darn it, everything was true.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:My skepticism was thrown out the window.
Speaker B:Everything was true that I found out about this woman.
Speaker B:And there's still people in Philadelphia who knew her and remember her.
Speaker B:And I was able to talk with them also.
Speaker B:And I'm still talking with them.
Speaker A:So that's impressive.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:I'm curious.
Speaker A:I'm looking at the fact that she was an international artist and a civil rights pioneer.
Speaker A:How did she balance those two different interest in a time when one of those two was not popular?
Speaker A:How do you.
Speaker A:Because, you know, in our culture of if you.
Speaker A:If you say the wrong thing, people want to cancel.
Speaker A:How does she balance those two?
Speaker B:Well, she.
Speaker B:She.
Speaker B:She was a fantastic, gifted singer, and she stuck to her.
Speaker B:She stuck to the knitting.
Speaker B:She used her only her voice to overcome all the prejudice and all the resistance.
Speaker B:She was not militant in any way.
Speaker B:She never or rarely ever spoke out militantly about civil rights.
Speaker B:It was always done in private, but in public, it was her voice that changed things.
Speaker B:And, you know, music is the international language that changes souls.
Speaker B:And she was able to overcome that without doing.
Speaker B:Going the militant route, which most people did back then, to overcome the obstacles.
Speaker B:So that was a big plus for her.
Speaker B:Not many people, not just not many, but nobody else could have done that.
Speaker B:She was sent by God to do this.
Speaker B:No question.
Speaker B:No question about it.
Speaker B:Nobody else could have done it like her.
Speaker A:So I know you've been impressed by her life.
Speaker A:Why do you think it's important to keep her legacy alive?
Speaker B:Well, that's a good question.
Speaker B:If you look at what's going on in today's world, Kids today need to have, in my own humble opinion, a solid Christian.
Speaker B:What do you want to call It Christian.
Speaker A:Christian follower, Christian leader, kind of witness example.
Speaker B:Yeah, a witness example.
Speaker B:And she had, she had gazillions of witness examples that were never publicized because the world doesn't want to know about what really motivated her.
Speaker B:They really didn't want to know.
Speaker B:They just wanted to listen to her sing and watch what she did.
Speaker B:Role models is what the word was that I was trying to recall earlier Christian role models.
Speaker B:And she was the ultimate Christian role model that kids today need to know about because she broke down many of the obstacles for our society and she needs to be recognized for that.
Speaker A:Whenever we write a book, it always not only impacts us, but it impacts our readers.
Speaker A:What did the writing that book do to impact your life or change your opinion about Marian Anderson?
Speaker B:Well, my, my opinion of Marian Anderson prior to that was very superficial.
Speaker B:Like most people, I just thought she was a great singer.
Speaker B:I just, I just knew some of the onstage stuff that she did all her life.
Speaker B:For 50 years, she lived out of a suitcase, going all over the world.
Speaker B:But the behind the scenes, and that was only 10% of who she was as a humanitarian trailblazer.
Speaker B:Her stage life was only 10% of who she was the rest of her life.
Speaker B:Behind the scenes is what I believe changed me and will change people when they learn about her.
Speaker B: She that going back to that: Speaker B:He picked up on that.
Speaker B:He listened intently and he picked up on that.
Speaker B:And the opening song that Marian Anderson sang, My Country Tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, and so on and so forth.
Speaker B:He used those exact words.
Speaker B: his I have a dream speech in: Speaker B:23 years later when he did his I have a Dream speech, which is historic.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker B:I can add.
Speaker B:Excuse me, but I can add one more.
Speaker B:I can add one more thing to that.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:If you, if you watched President Trump's, President Trump's inaugural, there was a black pastor from Detroit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And did you see his talk, his prayer?
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker B:Well, he used those exact words that Marian Anderson gave both Martin Luther King and him in his talk, in his prayer.
Speaker B:So she lives on today.
Speaker B:She continues to live on today.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I love to ask my guests this question.
Speaker A:What do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, boy.
Speaker B:I have to look at some notes.
Speaker B:I think I made about that one.
Speaker B:Let's see, let me see.
Speaker B:I want my legacy, hopefully, to be that I was a follower of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:I loved him, my family and my country.
Speaker B:And I worked to make it a better world and honor those who went before me.
Speaker B:That's all I can say.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:So what do you hope readers who pick up this book learn from it?
Speaker B:When they pick up the book, I hope they'll learn.
Speaker B:First of all, the book was written.
Speaker B:I had the benefit of 23 prior biographies.
Speaker B:This is her 24th biography.
Speaker B:But about half a dozen of those 23 biographies were written by her and was from her autobiography and from several scholars, several academic scholars.
Speaker B:Now, these scholars had a.
Speaker B:Because Marion was so ubiquitous, they could use her, and they did use her as their springboard to really just write about their point of, their scholarly point of view, be it musicality, civil rights, American history, etc.
Speaker B:And then they threw Marian Anderson in to make it look like it was a book about her, but it really wasn't.
Speaker B:It was really about their points of view.
Speaker B:And what I did.
Speaker B:What I did was I read all those books and I boiled them down to just the essence of who she really was.
Speaker B:And hopefully I made it short enough and I put it in chronological order, by the way, but.
Speaker B:And I made it short enough so that people could read it in one or two and two or three sittings with a lot of pictures and a lot of captions to the pictures.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And I want.
Speaker B:I did that for a purpose too, hopefully, so people would be able to take that book and do further research on her and continue her legacy.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker B:I think that answers the question you asked.
Speaker B:I can't remember what it was.
Speaker A:Now it does.
Speaker A:So where can people find your book and connect with you on social media?
Speaker B:Well, I'm not big on social media, being the age group that I am.
Speaker B:I'm a baby boomer.
Speaker B:I was one of the first baby boomers, actually.
Speaker B:I'm going to be 79 in July.
Speaker B:But I do have a website.
Speaker B:It's easy to remember.
Speaker B:It's called why we love marion.com.
Speaker B:they can.
Speaker B:People can go to that website, they can order the book from there, and hopefully they'll be able to leave a message behind or contribute to the website.
Speaker B:They'll see how to do that when they get on it.
Speaker B:And also it's all over Amazon, of course.
Speaker B:So that's the name of the book is why Is Remembering a Great American Hero, Marian Anderson.
Speaker B:Remembering a Great American Hero, Marian Anderson.
Speaker B:It's easy to find.
Speaker B:It's out there.
Speaker A:Well, thank you so much for sharing this story and may people pick up this book and be blessed by it and be blessed by the research you've done with it.
Speaker B:Well, thank you, Reverend Keith.
Speaker B:I really appreciate that.
Speaker B:And I hope they do, too, because that's my whole point of being right now.
Speaker B:Thank you so much.
