Wednesday 4 July 2012

Happy Fourth of July in a New Era: Even the DAR Has Changed

The face of the United States is changing, no one can deny that. Recent census figures show that more than half the babies born in the US are non-Hispanic whites, a situation which is going to much impact on the country's future. 

But things are also changing within some institutions that have been around for a long while, that, indeed, go back to the founding of the country. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has just inaugarated a new chapter where the majority of members of non-white. 

That's an enormous change from 1939 when the DAR barred contralto Marian Anderson from appearing in Constitution Hall.  The veto prompted the First Lady of the time, Eleanor Roosevelt, to resign. In response Ms. Anderson gave a grand concert at the Lincoln Memorial

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