Lincoln Memorial Concert

Saw the concert yesterday first via internet, then later at a party of several dozen Obama supporters. First, the snarky comments. Bishop Robinson's invocation--quite eloquent in text--was somehow missing from the broadcast. None of the choruses were identified--these people spent alot of time and came from tremendous distances to participate. At least they should be recognized. The only thing identifying the D.C. Gay Men's Chorus were the AIDs ribbons, otherwise they could have been the Marines. Across town, Marine veteran and ex-Navy corpsman, the great Rev. Wright packed Howard University's chapel and spoke about the guy with the Big Ears becoming President. His best line was that Michelle Obama would be the first black woman to "legally sleep in the White House." He can be snarky too. Aaron Copeland's Lincoln Suite, written when Lincoln was revised by the New Dealers, was too long for 400,000 people standing in the cold. For reasons that escape me, the party crowd loved Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising". For Washington, he should have song" My City of Ruins". How Garth Brooks merited three songs, while Stevie Wonder got one cut escapes me. Best tune was Bob Marley's "One Love". The man who must have gotten the biggest kick out of the event was Pete Seeger. Blackballed for years because of his unabashedly Stalinist politics, Pete managed to sing the entire, uncensored version of This Land Is Your Land. The missing four stanzas make it a song of class struggle. This must have been a hoot for him.

One part of the show has personal relevance. There was the film footage of Marian Anderson singing "My Country Tis A Thee" at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. This was right after the Daughters of the American Revolution banned her from singing at Constitution Hall. My grandmother Lillian Relyea promptly resigned from the DAR. Years later I asked her whether she resigned because Marian was black. A member of her husband's church choir, she said," No, it is because Marian Anderson sang like an angel. And if you don't allow angels to sing, I don't want any part of you." In the late 1980s, doing some research on the family tree, I visited the DAR and they refused to share my family information. That's a long time to carry a grudge.