When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.

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Author Zora Neale Hurston criticized Eleanor Roosevelt's public silence about the similar decision by the District of Columbia Board of Education while the District was under the control of committees of a Democratic Congress to first deny and then place race-based restrictions on a proposed concert by Anderson. S. Roosevelt Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday April 9 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.

She made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals. C.