Rivera describes Marian Anderson's concert in Washington, D.C., as the first major event he covered as a photojournalist. Following the refusal of the Daughters of the American Revolution to allow Anderson to sing at Constitutional Hall because she was African American, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for her to have a public concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial. For Rivera, this event and his coverage of it served as a harbinger for his long career of documenting civil rights struggles over the course of the civil rights movement. In a different interview, Rivera says that a photograph he took at this event was among his favorites from his career.