Despite racial prejudice and missed opportunities, opera star George Shirley has never sung the blues.

He’s made history in Michigan and across the country: first African American tenor to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, first black member of the elite U.S. Army Chorus in Washington, D.C., and first black high school music teacher in the Detroit Public Schools.

He’s appeared singing opera on stages around the world, from New York to London to Amsterdam, appearing in everything from “Porgy and Bess” to “Madame Butterfly” and rubbing elbows with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti.

Shirley, who lives in Ann Arbor, is taking his story to Logan Elementary School in Ann Arbor today as part of the nationwide effort to spread the word about African Americans who make history.

HistoryMakers, a national nonprofit that has recorded the oral histories of more than 2,000 notable African Americans including Shirley, is sending 500 historymakers into schools across 35 states. Shirley joins Valarie Jarret, senior adviser to President Barack Obama; Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and singer/actress Melba Moore who will go into schools and tell their stories in Friday's "Back to School with the HistoryMakers" program.

Shirley’s story began in Indianapolis, where he was born in 1934 to working class parents. His father sold insurance, but would later move his family to Detroit to work in the auto plant, and his mother worked as a church secretary. His family had humble means, Shirley said, but a love of music. By the time Shirley was 5 years old, he’d taken second place in a local contest singing a Bing Crosby tune.

“I knew my life would involve music in some way,” he said. “It was the thing I seemed to be about.”

Shirley attended Wayne University (it wasn’t Wayne State University yet) for music education, with an eye on teaching. It was the practical thing to do, he said.

“Performing, as a profession, was not in the picture because it seemed like an impractical thing,” he said.

And opera? “I had no interest in corpulent people standing with helmets on their heads and spears in their hands,” he said.

Even before graduation, Shirley was hired as Detroit School’s first black high school music teacher.

Shirley thought he was set - until he was drafted a year later.

He played the euphonium for the Army base marching band when he was stationed in Missouri. By the time basic training ended, he was bored.

Two friends, both of them white, were going on a weekend pass to try out for the newly formed U.S. Army Chorus in Washington D.C.

“With the social atmosphere that existed at the time in the United States, I didn’t think there was a chance for a black man to be in such an elite unit,” Shirley said.

Still, he auditioned. And was accepted, making history a second time.

Still, the world wasn’t colorblind and Shirley faced difficulties: A friend had invited him to sing at a white Washington D.C., church. Afterward, the minister asked him not to return. Some members of the congregation had felt uncomfortable.

While he was singing in the Army Chorus, Shirley decided to take voice lessons from an retired opera tenor, Themy Georgi.

“He assured me that if I studied under him for a year, he guaranteed that I would have a career,” Shirley said. That was enough to give him faith in himself.

A year later, he landed his first opera role with a small company in Woodstock, New York. “Fortunately, it was all in English,” Shirley said. There would be setbacks - an opera company in Texas wouldn’t hire him because of his race - but that didn’t stop him.

“You can’t be a minority in any country without dealing with these kinds of problems,” he said. His biggest break would soon come. He was accepted as the first black tenor at The Metropolitan Opera, where he performed for 11 years.

He came to the University of Michigan as a professor of voice in 1987 until he retired in 2007.

While Shirley broke ground, he still had role models: Roland Hayes, a tenor considered the first black male music super star; singer Marian Anderson and concert singer Paul Robeson.

“All of these people had a dignity about them that I admired,” Shirley said. “I admired how they carried themselves. They didn’t beg for respect, but they commanded it.”

That’s the part of the message Shirley said he will carry into the classroom.

“Education, obviously, is important to me,” he said. “But I also want to share what I dealt with and how I handled it, and to let them know when an opportunity comes your way, don’t be afraid of it.”

Shirley can be heard performing on numerous websites, including YouTube.