Melba Moore: A Voice for Equality

Award-winning actress and singer Melba Moore has been honored for her work on- and off-stage, as a groundbreaking performer and civil and human rights activist.

As part of the original cast of the Broadway musical “Hair,” Moore made history in 1969 as the first Black actress to step into a role vacated by a white actress, when she replaced Diane Keaton. Two decades later, when Dorothy Height encouraged Moore to record a contemporary version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” she brought together fellow vocalists to record the hymn known as the Black national anthem, which was entered into the Congressional Record in 1990. In 2023, Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.