Gallup's First Question About Racism in 1939

[OfTheCross]

The March 1939 Gallup question read, "The Daughters of the American Revolution would not allow a well-known Negro singer to give a concert in one of their halls. As a protest against this, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the organization. Do you approve of her action?"

Most Americans (57%) approved of Roosevelt's resignation, while 28% disapproved. Fifteen percent had no opinion.

gallup


just an interesting bit of history

[PeteS in CA]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAR_Constitution_Hall

In 1939, the DAR denied African-American singer Marian Anderson the opportunity to sing at the Hall, causing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign her membership in protest. Instead, Anderson performed (with the aid of Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt) a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. The organization would later reverse its racial exclusion policy and Anderson performed at Constitution Hall for an American Red Cross war relief benefit in 1943; in 1964, she chose it as the first venue of her farewell concert tour.