Last night, on PBS, they were running a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Even the lamest history of the Roosevelts will include some mention of how in 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let the great Marian Anderson sing in their ivory tower or whatever because they didn't like the shade of her complexion. Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership and suddenly Ms. Anderson is singing at the Lincoln Memorial before the biggest crowd ever.
What this piece had, that I had not seen before, was video. They showed Ms. Anderson singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee", and had some interviewees talking. Then she started singing "Ave Maria". My limited reading on the subject suggests that she owns that piece, and the program gave me just enough to see that it was positively majestic.
Even factoring in that any media footage (including Forrest Gump), that involves the Lincoln Memorial is likely to make me all misty, this was bloody brilliant. So I jump onto bn.com to find it. Nothing. Google sent me to YouTube which has a one minute, poor quality video of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", but no video of "Ave Maria". But I found this, which I just had to post if only so that I can have it handy all the time.
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