Hilda "Peggy" Loram Bailey

Biography shared in 1938-1939 BMC catalog, "Helda Loram Bailey English St Swithun’s School, Winchester, England; Swarthmore College, A.B.; Columbia University, M.A. Positions at Black Mountain College 1933-1935; Miquon School, Miquon, Pennsylvania, 1935-1938. Black Mountain College, 1938."

The first English teacher of the College, “Peggy” Loram Bailey spoke with author Martin Duberman about her recollection of a student meeting in 1933. Peggy’s father, Charles Templeman Loram, a professor at Yale, asked to stop at Black Mountain College on his way through the South. He planned to bring with him a handful of graduate students to witness Negro education in practice. Peggy recalled that at least one student was black, Dr. Zachariah Matthews, which sparked the debate on housing situations for blacks as visitors. The debate, even then, wasn’t whether the students and faculty agreed on the ethics of having black students in the same living quarters, but rather how the surrounding cities of Asheville and Black Mountain would view the housing situation. BMC was, after all, a new school and the community didn’t interact with outside townsfolk often. Students and faculty “reluctantly voted to have the Negro student housed elsewhere,” according to Peggy. Bailey served as faculty from 1933 to 1935 spring semester, and again from the fall of 1938 to the spring of 1939.

Source mentioned: Martin Duberman's book, Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community

Relationships

Husband: BMC student, David Bailey