19. Leontyne Price achieved international fame as an opera singer
During the 1950s and 1960s Leontyne Price, of the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, became one of the most acclaimed sopranos in the world. She attended Wilberforce College in Ohio, where she sang in the glee club as well as the chapel choir. In the late 1940s, she began to give recitals in Mississippi before entering the Juilliard School in 1948. By the early 1950s, she sang on Broadway, including performances of Verdi’s Falstaff and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Despite no shortage of Black characters in many operas, Black singers faced racial bias which prevented them from obtaining many roles. Price toured giving recitals and concerts in Europe, India, and Australia before performing the title role in Verdi’s Aida, in Michigan in 1957. It became her signature role.
In 1961 she finally made her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Her performance earned one of the longest ovations in that venue’s long history. In the late 1960s, she cut back on opera performances, preferring to sing in concerts and television. She sang at the inauguration of President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, and at his state funeral in 1973. She performed at the White House at the invitation of President Carter in 1978, and later for Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. She is among the most decorated women in American history, having been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Spingarn Medal, 19 Grammy awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as numerous honorary degrees and testimonials. Miles Davis once said of her, “She should be an inspiration for every musician, black or white. I know she is to me”.