A Black History Month Series

Born: 1897 in Philadelphia

Died: 1993

Career: Beginning at age six, Anderson sang in the church choir, where she could already hit the high soprano and low baritone notes. Because her father died when she was a child and her mother worked as a cleaning woman to support the family, church members threw a benefit concert to raise money for her singing lessons. The advertisements read: “Come and hear the baby contralto, ten years old.”

In 1925, she entered a contest with 300 singers for the chance to perform with the New York Philharmonic. She won and received a fellowship that allowed her to go to England and Germany. She studied German songs, which became part of her repertoire. Anderson gave over 100 concerts concerts throughout Europe and received rave reviews for all her performances.

In 1939, she planned to give a concert in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). When the DAR refused to let her perform, President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, were so outraged that Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership and helped arrange for Anderson to give a concert outdoors at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Anderson performed  for 75,000 people. After that, Anderson refused to sing to segregated audiences. In 1943, a mural was unveiled on the wall of the Department of the Interior building depicting the concert.

In 1941, Anderson received the Bok Award from the city of Philadelphia, given to the citizen of which it is the most proud—the first African American to receive it. The $10,000 award was used to establish the Marian Anderson Scholarship Fund for music students of all races. In 1955, she performed with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York in Verdi’s opera “The Masked Ball,” becoming the first African-American to sing an important role at the Metropolitan Opera as a company member.

In 1956, Anderson made a farewell tour throughout America and Europe, and a year later toured twelve Asian nations on behalf of the State Department. In 1958, she was named to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. In 1991, she appeared at the dedication of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children’s pediatric sickle-cell anemia clinic and research center, which is named in her honor. Marian Anderson died in 1993 at the age of ninety-six.

Why she’s historic: Besides breaking many racial barriers, Marian Anderson is still considered by many the greatest contralto who ever lived.

The Marian Anderson Historical Society: Assists and mentors vocal classical artists in their professional careers and provides financial sources for auditions, performances, wardrobe and competitions. Also maintains the house in South Philadelphia where Marian Anderson was born as a tourist site and residence museum.

A Black History Month Series

Born: July 12, 1937 in Philadelphia

High School: Central

College: Temple

Masters degree: University of Massachusetts, 1972

Doctorate degree, Education: University of Massachusetts, 1976

Passions: jazz, basketball, track, cigars

Career: Left Temple to do stand-up in bars and clubs. Early albums—”I Started Out As A Child,” Why Is there Air?,” “Wonderfulness” and others—were huge and instant hits. Became regular guest host of “Tonight Show.” Starred in “The Bill Cosby Show” for two seasons. Starred in immensely popular “I Spy” series with actor Robert Culp. Big run with “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,” based on his childhood in Phlly,” ’72 to ’84. Became spokesperson for Jello. Made a series of movies; best known: “Uptown Saturday Night.” Launched “The Cosby Show” in 1984—it became the best rated TV show in history. Authored six books, most successful: “Fatherhood” in 1986. Still appears in venues around the country.

Quote: “Old is always fifteen years from now.”

His iTune list:
“Where’s the Parade,” Bill Cosby
“Dear Lord,” John Coltrane Quartet
“Mack the Knife,” Ella Fitzgerald
“Here’s to Life,” Joe Williams & The Robert Farnon Orchestra
“Monk’s Dream,” The Thelonious Monk Quartet
“Misty,” Richard Groove Holmes
“The Sermon,” Jimmy Smith
“Body and Soul ,” Coleman Hawkins
“Flying Home,” Illinois Jacquet, Lionel Hampton & Quincy Jones and His Orchestra

Why he’s historic: Besides being one of the best-known entertainers in history, he’s never forgotten Philadelphia, returning often for Temple basketball games, the Penn Relays, to visit friends John Chaney, Bootsie Barnes and others, and to promote Central High and Temple University.

A Black History Month Series

Born: June 22, 1941

Where: Philadelphia

Died: November 9, 2006

College: Cheney State, 1964

First job: WDAS radio. (Bradley covered the ’64 riots.)

Career: Covered the Vietnam War for CBS News, where he was wounded in 1973. First black White House correspondent for CBS News. In 1981, became “60 Minutes” correspondent, where he stayed for 26 years, covering over 500 stories.

Memorable “60 Minutes” stories: Interview with Timothy McVeigh, sex abuse in the Catholic Church, the Columbine High School shootings, the Mississippi murder case of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

Awards: Emmy Award (19 times), Peabody for African AIDS report “Death By Denial,” Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Paul White Award, George Polk Award for Foreign Television and Lifetime Achievement Award from National Association of Black Journalists.

CBS colleague Bob Schieffer on Ed Bradley: “Ed Bradley was the coolest guy I have ever known… People just loved him. Ed always had a kid with him, a godson or someone’s child. God knows how much money he gave away to charity. He was the softest touch in town.”

Passion: Jazz. In Philadelphia, on WDAS, Bradley occasionally did stints as a jazz disc jockey, making $1.50 an hour spinning records by Coltrane, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. Later in his career, he hosted “Jazz at Lincoln Center” on NPR.

Quote: “For me to be able to stand up in the Khyber Pass and say, ‘Boy, here’s little Butch Bradley from West Philly. Alexander the Great passed through here 2,500 years ago’—God, I mean, that’s a kick!”

A Black History Month Series

Born: 1915, in West Virginia

Died: 1979

Law degree: Temple University, 1953

Career: The city’s most effective and well-known civil rights leader, Moore built a rep as a tough, take-no-prisoners legal pit-bull on behalf of his poor neighborhood clients in North Philadelphia. He dramatically raised the number of rank and file members, as well as the profile, of the city’s NAACP during his tenure as president (’63 to ’67), and he even spent time as a member of City Council. Moore’s aggressive in-your-face style (which he used to say came from his Marine Corps background), irritated many of the city’s white leaders, but often got him the result he wanted: exposure of his issues in the media.

Memorable quote: “I was determined when I got back [from World War II] that what rights I didn’t have I was going to take, using every weapon in the arsenal of democracy. After nine years in the Marine Corps, I don’t intend to take another order from any son of a bitch that walks.”

What makes him historic: Cecil Moore will be remembered for two pivotal moments in the city’s history: the desegregation of Girard College (he led rallies and pickets) and his role in quelling the ’64 riots in North Philadelphia.

In his honor: Columbia Avenue, an historic thoroughfare in North Philadelphia, was renamed Cecil B. Moore Avenue in 1987.