A Focus on Art and Culture

Using her own money, Cooke traveled to cover Marian Anderson’s historic open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. After being restricted from performing at an integrated audience in Constitution Hall, Anderson was spotlighted in the international community and sang in front of 75,000 people. Because of her involvement with the Harlem Renaissance, Marvel Jackson Cooke worked to incorporate groundbreaking and inspirational stories like these into the Amsterdam News.