Book Displays: Equal Justice Initiative 2024: Mar

Calendar photo caption: Nat King Cole performs in 1960. (Ebbe Wrae/JP Jazz Archive/Getty Images)

On April 9, 1939, after she was barred from every indoor auditorium in Washington, D.C., because of her race, world-renowned Black opera singer Marian Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for an audience of more than 75,000 as millions more listened on the radio. 

Despite Marian Anderson's success, Black musicians continued to be barred from white-only venues or forced to play at segregated venues where a rope often divided the audience by race. 

At Harlem's white-only Cotton Club, Black performers were allowed entrance only through the back door. New Orleans's famed Bourbon Street featured many prominent Black artists, but Black patrons were not allowed. Refused access to break rooms, Black artists took breaks off side streets. 

Black musicians faces constant threat of violence. On April 10, 1956, African American singer and pianist Nat King Cole was performing before an all-white audience of 4,000 at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, when he was attacked by a group of white men. 

Police were present at the Birmingham concert in case of trouble and apprehended Mr. Cole's attackers. Four men were charged with inciting a riot while two others were held for questioning. Outside the arena, officers later found a car containing rifles, a blackjack, and brass knuckles. 

Black artists consistently topped charts and captured the attention of the American public while much of the racial discrimination they endured went unrecognized.