Etta Moten Barnett, a Weimar native born in 1901, became one of the most acclaimed African American women of the twentieth century. She began singing at an early age in local African Methodist Episcopal churches where her father was pastor, then moved with her family to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1916 and later earned a degree in voice and drama at the University of Kansas. After moving to New York City in the 1930s, she encountered leading Harlem Renaissance figures including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Following appearances in several Broadway shows and radio programs, she went to Hollywood and gained a breakthrough role in Gold Diggers of 1933. A performance at the Fox Theater in Washington, D.C., brought her to the attention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who invited her to sing for the president the next night. On January 30, 1934, she became the first African American woman to give a solo performance at the White House, singing songs requested by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the celebration of his birthday. Later that year she married journalist Claude Barnett, owner of the Associated Negro Press. For decades she remained active in civil rights organizations such as the National Council of Negro Women and took part in the 1963 National March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. An award-winning entertainer, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and was named by the Texas Women's Chamber of Commerce as one of Texas' 100 most influential women. She retired to Chicago and devoted the rest of her life to fostering interracial and interreligious understanding, and she is remembered for breaking color barriers in entertainment and furthering civil liberties.