BARBARA SMITH CONRAD (1937-2017)
Barbara Conrad (née Barbara Louise Smith) was an internationally acclaimed opera singer, educator, and civil rights pioneer.
Conrad, the youngest of five children, was born and raised in an all-black town in Texas. In 1956, Conrad was one of 104 Black students to be admitted to the University of Texas in its first year as a desegregated institution.
In 1957, she was cast as the female lead in the production of Dido and Aeneas, playing opposite a white male student. Once news spread of the casting, she bean receiving threatening calls and was accosted on campus by a stranger. She was ultimately removed from the production after the university was threatened to lose funding.
After graduation, Conrad moved to New York where she began an illustrious career as a mezzo-soprano with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Conrad worked with leading composers of the time and traveled throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and South America.
Among her patrons were Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who had heard of her through the controversy surrounding the mixed-racial pairing of her role at UT.
During the controversy surrounding her role, Conrad had this to say: “You [don’t] run away if your staying could make a difference…”
Conrad died at the age of 79 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.
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