In slavery, African Americans pushed the United States from a simple group of agricultural states to an industrial superpower. Also in the 1920s, African Americans pushed the American narrative through political, artistic, and scientific inventions. In the end, the Scarecrow realized that he still had a brain and the power to create his own destiny and this message that the writers of The Wiz wanted to convey to African Americans through the film. The Wiz shows exactly what the Black Arts Movement was trying to convey to African Americans who had the knowledge to blaze a trail with their own minds. Marian Anderson was one of the first African American women to perform in front of a national monument in segregated Washington, DC. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution blocked Anderson from performing at Constitutional Hall; This did not deter Marian Anderson from performing at the Lincoln Memorial and paving the way for future African-American musicians. Anderson's actions showed that African Americans' ignorance should not prevent them from achieving their goals.