Dear Bill
I vote reluctantly to admit Brent as a student in the advanced department of the Peabody Conservatory of course subject to Mr. Stewart finding him to be “extremely talented”. That Mayor Jackson backs him counts nothing with me. I have talked the matter over with Mrs. Cooper who is here at York Harbor, and also with Gilman Paul before I left, and as you and they feel that he should be admitted, I acquiesce. I do not think however, that a public announcement of a policy to admit negroes should be made until there has been a full discussion of the subject at a board meeting.
I feel that there is an hysterical element in the way the negro question, especially in its racial aspects, is being rushed at the present time, and that under the guise of racial equality, things are going too fast. Had public opinion been allowed to develop more slowly there would be less friction in a community like Baltimore. You and I both know, that apart from the negroes themselves, where most of the pressure now comes from.
Yours sincerely,
J. Hall Pleasants]]> A Message of Inclusion, A History of Exclusion: Racial Injustice at the Peabody Institute, Acceptance of Paul Brent: 1949]]>
Dear Billy -
I am sorry to have been so slow in answering your letter but we were on a trip to the White Mountain in New Hampshire and no mail was forwarded.
At first I was inclined to disagree with you and the others about the advisability of admitting a negro student to the Conservatory. However after giving further consideration to this problem I find that I am in agreement with you provided it is not used to set a precedent but that each future case will be decided upon its merits.
It seems to me that a line, perhaps a fine one, can be drawn between other activities of the Conservatory and the Advance [sic] Department which requires individual instruction rather than work in the Classroom.
We have been thinking of all you in [illegible] but not with the same sympathy as ordinarily because the heat has been pretty bad up here and the fields are burned to a crisp with little or no rain for the past two months and more. Charlotte sends her love to Natalie.
Sincerely,
Hambleton]]> A Message of Inclusion, A History of Exclusion: Racial Injustice at the Peabody Institute, Acceptance of Paul Brent: 1949]]>