Question

from The Voice that Challenged a Nation: What information does this excerpt further convey about segregation? “Arriving in Savannah after an overnight trip, Marian and her mother were greeted warmly by school officials and were put up at the home of the college president. That evening an audience of nearly a thousand people turned out for the concert in Savannah’s new Municipal Auditorium, whites sitting in the boxes and dress circle, blacks in segregated orchestra or gallery seats. “[Marian] Anderson, the soloist, has one of the most remarkable voices ever heard in Savannah,” reported the Savannah Morning News.” Question 47 options: a) Marian encounters segregation, even when she is the star performer. b) Savannah offers better living conditions for African-Americans. c) Marian’s performance in Savannah inspires the audience to end segregation. d) People dislike the performance because Marian is African-American.

Answer 1

a) Marian encounters segregation, even when she is the star performer.

Step-by-step explanation:

Russell Freedman's non-fictional book "The Voice that Challenged a Nation" is about a famous black singer Marian Anderson. Her life as a singer, even after she's become famous, and the racial segregation that she observed and also personally encountered, ultimately led her to be one of the prominent voices of racism in America.

In the given excerpt from the book, the narrator recounts one event where Marian was invited to perform in Savannah, Georgia. There, she saw how the whites and the blacks were seated in different sections of the "Municipal Auditorium." She saw the "whites sitting in the boxes and dress circle, blacks in segregated orchestra or gallery seats," which is a massive indication of how the racial segregation still operate despite their star performer who is black herself. Thus, the passage shows how Marian encounters discrimination even when she is the star performer.