Negro Co-ed Dismissed From Cast Of Opera by Texas U. Officials

Pressure from the state legislature forced the administration of the University of Texas to withdraw a Negro student from the cast of the college opera: Dido and Aeneas.

The move was opposed by the college newspaper, The Daily Texan, and by the majority of students, over 1000 of whom have signed a petition condemning the action.

Barbara Smith, a freshman at UT, was cast six months ago as Dido, but one week before opening she was told by the administration that she would not appear in the opera. The reasons given were: "to insure Miss Smith's well-being and to quelch any possibility that her appearance would precipitate a cut in the University's appropriations in the state legislature."

Representatives Joseph Chapman and Jerry Sadler were the chief instigators of the plan and both men made contact with President John Wilson of UT. Sadler had previously made a speech before an Austin gathering opposing the casting of a Negress and suggesting that it would be very difficult for the University to get any appropriations from the state legislature that year.

The two representatives, according to Wilson, contacted him the day after the University's decision to suspend Miss Smith from the cast. Wilson was quoted as saying that legislative opinion "had no bearing on the decision."

Authorities of the college have also complained of receiving threatening telephone calls and Miss Smith said that she has been getting three or more anonymous calls a week telling her "to get out of the cast."

The opera went off as scheduled on Friday night and, according to Nancy McEans, Editor of the Texan, "There were more policemen and photographers than students in the audience." Miss McEans also said that there was a move to picket the theatre but nothing came of it. "We are deeply shocked," she said, "but there is nothing we can do about it."

Miss Smith herself did not protest the move but simply wants "to go back to being just an ordinary student. Perhaps I should have expected something like this," she reported after her interview with the university, "but I was totally shocked. My only reaction was of great hurt. I now realize," she added, "that the ultimate success of integration at the University was more important than my appearance in the opera."