Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an African-American contralto best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We don't take colored" when she tried to apply. Consequently, she continued her singing studies with a private teacher. She debuted .