Seventy-Five Thousand Witnesses

On Easter Sunday, 1939, contralto Marian Anderson stood on the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial and opened her mouth to sing. The Daughters of the American Revolution had barred her from Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin. But Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership in protest, and the Department of the Interior offered the National Mall instead.

What was meant as a closed door became the widest stage in America.

Anderson began with My Country, 'Tis of Thee, her voice rolling across seventy-five thousand people who stretched from the Memorial to the Washington Monument. Millions more listened by radio. She did not deliver a speech about injustice. She simply sang — and in that singing, a wrong was exposed, a dignity was declared, and a watching nation felt the unmistakable weight of righteousness stepping into open air.

Psalm 98 calls us to "sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things." The psalmist understood that when the Almighty acts, His salvation is not whispered behind closed doors. His righteousness is revealed to the nations — out where rivers clap their hands and mountains sing together for joy. God does His redeeming work on the widest possible stage, and every corner of creation is invited to witness it.