Noted tenor and composer Roland Hayes (right) performed at Portland City Hall Auditorium on April 26, 1937, several days before his transatlantic trip to attend the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church invited Hayes to sing in Portland; the singer donated nearly all the profits to help the Munjoy Hill Church. The Rev. Dr. John C. Schroeder (left) was the general chairman of the arrangement for the concert.

Hayes performed, with the accompaniment of Percival Parham, "Alma Del Core" by Antonio Caldera, "When I am Laid in Earth" by Purcell as well as songs by Handel, Beethoven, Schubert (Hayes sang in German), as well as a vocal setting to Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son."