The Rest Of The Story

A truthful witness gives honest testimony,

but a false witness tells lies. (Proverbs 12:17)

 

      In 1939, Marion Anderson was denied the right to do a concert in Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. She gave the concert at the Lincoln Memorial instead. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her membership in response. Ever since, the story has been told and people believe that the DAR is racist. Google it, you'll find that it's everywhere. They even teach it in schools almost 80 years later.

       As Paul Harvey would put it, here is "the rest of the story," at least, as I understand it. Eleanor Roosevelt was the person who suggested the concert. The DAR has a standing rule that only one event can be scheduled at Constitution Hall on any given day and there was already something scheduled there for the day in question. This means that either the DAR would have had to have broken the agreement with the other agency, granted Eleanor Roosevelt and others control of the facility, or honored their previous commitment. They chose the last.

            Two other points that aren't often mentioned when the first part of the story is told. The Daughters invited Marion Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall a few years later, when it was their choice and not something a powerful person tried to push on them.  Also, Constitution Hall was not the only venue denied to Ms. Anderson. Other facilities actually did practice discrimination. But the DAR is the only one whose story is told.

         It's so easy to believe the first story we hear. That's why the Jews were commanded to find someone guilty only on the testimony of 2 or more witnesses.

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On the Calendar

Marion Anderson Day (Concert "denied" at DAR) 

Birthday of

Charles Pierre Baudelaire, Golf