 seems all the more deplorable.’’ 

At Eleanor Roosevelt's behest, President Roosevelt and Walter White, then-executive secretary of the NAACP, and Anderson's manager, impresario Sol Hurok, persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes to arrange an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.The concert was performed on Easter Sunday, April 9, and Anderson was accompanied, as usual, by Vehanen.They began the performance with a dignified and stirring rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee".