MS01.01.03.B02.F23.089

aired her concerns of Locke's ^ [?]^ criticism of
the Foundation to this writer in response
^to a ^ letter [strike: I had] written [strike: about] to her about
[strike: having had an interesting conversation] a conversation I had with
Edith Halpert at the country home of
Artist Bill cummings at Skowhagan,
Maine in August, 1965. In my letter to
Brady, I cited the praise Halpert had
for Locke. It was Brady's response to my
letter which revealed how she still
felt ^long after Locke's death^ about his
involvement in the
art scene in the 1930s and 1940s [strike: long
after his death]
In response to my letter, Brady wrote:
"I am very much interested in your comment re Mrs. Halpert
in regard to Alain Locke. Well do I remember the day I dragged him up to
midtown to look at some art galleries; it was a very sticky day in August.
We went into her then new gallery location and over the libations it was
possible to get her to look at Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series, which
he brought down after I went downstairs and luckily found him in on the
telephone. I never knew what happened but as Alain felt he was getting
in with Mrs. Halpert he became more critical of what we were doing.
I went out on a long field trip, having turned over to
Mrs. Halpert a good deal of information on the artists we knew about, most
of whom we had worked with. When I got back a show had been arranged,
admissions were to be charged and the proceeds were to create a scholarship
fund. You will be interested in knowing that I was not even invited to
the opening affair. 33
While the text of the letter reveals Brady's
equal distrust of Halpert, it none-the-less, is
more revealing of her [strike: distrust of] concern for
[strike: Alain] Locke's ^behavior^. She seldom apologized
for speaking [strike: her mind] ^out on a cross section of broad
cultural isssues^ nor for calling important
officials to task on [strike: their selections of] matters
about which she did not agree.

33 Letter from Mary B. Brady to David Driskill, August 20, 1965 p. 1
private archive