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Frank W. Ballou Superintendent of Schools Franklin Administration Building Thirteenth and K Streets, NW Washington DC
Mr. Charles C. Cohen Chairman, Concert Series Committee School of Music Howard University Washington DC
My dear Mr. Cohen:
Your communication of March 5, 1939 addressed to the Board of Education, was recieved in the office of the Board on Saturday, March eleventh and presented to the Board at its meeting on March fifteenth and referred to the Superintendent for administrative action in accordance with the action of the Board on March 3 as to the use of the Central High School Auditorium for a concert by Miss Marian Anderson on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939.
Your letter of March ninth contains the following statement of your position in this matter:
"Howard University gratefully accepts the use of the Central High School Auditorium for its presentation of Miss Anderson on April 9, but wishes it plainly understood that it in no wise by acceptance of the use of the building, agrees to the conditions or implications contained in the statement of the Board of Education of March 3."
Certain of the conditions to which you refer are contained in a report of the Committee on the Community Use of Buildings, (copy enclosed), which was adopted by the Board of Education at its meeting on March third, reading in part as follows:
"The Committee believes that a concession now, as a proof of good will to Marian Anderson and the colored people of the District, will serve to remove this question from public discussion, but only under positive and definite assurance and agreement that the concession will not be taken as a precedent and that the Board of Education will not in the future again be asked to depart from the principle of a dual system of schools and school facilities."
Briefly, the essence of there conditions is that the favorable action of the Board of Education in approving the unusual procedure of granting the use of the Auditorium of the Central High School to the School of Music of Howard University in an emergency, should not be contrued as a precedent and thereby establish future policy. Spokesmen representing Howard University made these suggestions in their appeal to the Board of Education for favorable action.
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Mr. Charles C. Cohen-2 March 17, 1939
Acquiescence in these conditions was necessary in order to secure six votes of the Board to suspend the rules and authorize the use of the Central High School Auditorium for the Marian Anderson concert.
In view of these facts it is obvious that it was the expectation of the Board that you would assent to these conditions which were agreed to and became an essential part of the action of the Board in making it possible for you to use the Central High School Auditorium. It is obvious therefore, that your "acceptance" of the use of the Central High School Auditorium [underlined]WITHOUT AGREEMENT TO THE CONDITIONS[end underline] was in reality not an acceptance but a refusal.
As Superintendent of Schools, it is my duty and responsibility to supervise the issuance of permits for the use of school buildings, in accordance with the rules and regulations, orders, and instructions of the Board of Education. I have no authority to issue a permit except on the basis of the conditions set up by the Board.
In view of you declination to accept the conditions laid down by the Board, under which it was understood such a permit would be issued, the responsibilty for making Central High School Auditorium unavailable for the concert of Miss Anderson on April 9, 1939 must be assumed by you and your associates at Howard University.
Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Frank W. Ballou Superintendent of Schools
FWB:hh
