The News & Observer, Raleigh NC, Feb. 11, 2006 - Letter to the Editor
The obituary last month of opera singer Birgit Nilsson reminded me that she was more than a great soprano.
In 1964, students at Tougaloo College, a black institution in central Mississippi, contacted guest artists who were scheduled to appear with the Jackson (Miss.) Symphony. At that time the symphony was segregated, that is, there were no blacks in the orchestra and blacks were not admitted to the concerts. The students asked the artists to cancel their appearances, at least until the symphony desegregated.
Birgit Nilsson did so, despite the considerable cost to her for breaking her contract.
So, in her passing, we have lost both a great voice and a great heart.
Joe Herzenberg
Chapel Hill
(The writer, a former Chapel Hill Town Council member, is a former assistant professor of history at Tougaloo College.)
Saturday, February 11, 2006
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