Classroom

This tour is showing us historical landmarks on Towson's campus that relate to events during the 1960s and 1970s that students were able to overcome such as women’s oppression, anti-war efforts, and racial tension through their similar use of tactics such as protest, speeches, and rallies.

On October 29th, 1970, artist Richard Kirstel was set to give a speech at Towson State College and exhibit his "Pas De Deux" series which included thirty-eight of his photographs that depicted the male and female body in nude form. The exhibit was meant to be displayed in the Van Bokkelen Hall but due to the nature of the art the exhibit was canceled by President James L. Fisher and the Dean of the time, Dr. Kenneth A. Shaw. The President expressed his concerns that the event would cause damage to the institution and that it would have little positive effect on Towson State as a Fine Arts school. He believed it was not worth the energy to defend the showing at Towson State due to the controversy he thought would inevitably rise over the display of the nude and sexual photographs. Richard Kirstel arrived at the school despite the requests of the President not to and encouraged the students to protest his anticipated arrest. He also read aloud the statements made by Kirstel and Shaw about his art. He also instructed the students to take his photographs and use them in their protest efforts in order to defend artistic freedom. The censorship employed by the college caused an outrage amongst students and they took pieces from Kirstel's exhibit and displayed them along York Road and outside the Towson police station.&nbsp; Greek Life and Van Bokkelen Hall In 1975, 3 Black Greek Life organizations at Towson, Iota Phi Theta, Delta Sigma Theta, and Non Phi Non, used Van Bokkelen auditorium to meet and discuss ways to bring awareness to campus on issues affecting Black students. During this time, &nbsp;Iota Phi Theta was the first and only Black fraternity at Towson.During this week, Iota Phi Theta planned the third Annual Iota Week. This week of activities included different things like an "Orientation Rap Session” and a picnic. The purpose of this week was to have people get to know the fraternity. The goal of the meeting that took place was to come up with ways to help fix the attrition rate of Black students generally and the Black male particularly. While they were not listed anywhere as being active in any movements, this shows the start of how they wanted to work to fix issues affecting Black students such as racism.Another organization, Delta Sigma Theta, had its new members meet to discuss service projects for Towson and the Baltimore Area. One project was created to improve the self image of children in the community. They also plan to aid the Black Student Unions tutorial program. The goal of this organization was to contribute to the educational experiences at Towson.(Page 3, Towerlight, September 5, 1975)<div> </div>

Van Bokkelen Hall is an academic building at Towson University built in 1924. 

Outside view of Van Bokkelen Hall atTowson University

Van Bokkelen Hall

By 1969, The Vietnam War was already coming to an end. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had been signed in 1964, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson full authority to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without declaring war. In 1968, the Tet Offensive was deemed the turning point of the war, when the Viet Cong broke the treaty that promised peace on the Tet holiday and launched a series of surprise attacks on South Vietnamese and American forces.&nbsp;In 1969, President Nixon had started the process of withdrawing American troops. He termed his plan the "Nixon Doctrine" and his policy famously became known as Vietnamization. By this time, nearly 37,000 Americans had already perished in the war. At 9 am on the morning of December 12th, 1969, about a dozen Towson State College students occupied Linthicum Hall in a "Procession Against Death." The decision to carry out this event was inspired by the tragic deaths of American boys in the Vietnam War. As the students proceeded through the hallways of Linthicum, the names of each American boy who was killed in Vietnam were read out loud. With the number of deceased American servicemen reaching&nbsp;11,780 in the year 1969 alone,&nbsp;this procession required a true sense of determination to honor every single one of those soldiers. On the hour, the students stopped and aided a faculty group in reading specific quotes taken from interviews with soldiers who were involved in the My Lai massacre. Shortly after the event began, professors started to complain that the procession was disrupting class. After a brief acknowledgement of these complaints, the protesters continued on with the procession. The Dean of Students, Orrielle Murphy, was instructed to inform the protesters that if the procession continued with this loud tone of voice, everyone participating would be arrested for disturbing the peace. The President of the College at the time, James L. Fischer, took credit for the idea of confronting the protesters, stating that he would not have hesitated to contact the authorities if the students had continued.&nbsp; After meeting with the Dean of Students, the leaders of the procession agreed to lower their voices. The procession resumed and the students accomplished exactly what they had set out to do. Shortly after the procession ended at 12:30 pm, a student forum was opened up as an opportunity for anyone to voice their opinion on communism and the Vietnam War. After the student forum, an open forum was held to discuss the topic of student dissent. The event ended at 4 pm with both parties grateful that tensions had not escalated any more. In May of 1972, 23 Towson State students were arrested in a protest against the Vietnam War, staged as a sit-in and takeover of Linthicum Hall. The day preceding the takeover consisted of peaceful candlelight demonstration involving over 700 people on campus. As the evening progressed, a small group of about two dozen more radical student activists gathered to plan the takeover of the classroom building. Between the hours of 2 and 4 in the morning, these students overtook the building, blocking entrances and hallways. 23 were arrested with charges of trespassing and hindering police officers. The protest was peaceful and resulted in no injuries, but was one of the largest responses in terms of severity from Towson police and administration to a student protest to the war. One of the students arrested was quoted saying, explaining the student’s motivation to perform this protest despite the known consequences, “...once I was inside I realized that an arrest was not important compared to what was going on in Vietnam, so I stayed.” (Towson Bureau of The Sun).<div> </div>

Built in 1968, Linthicum Hall served as Towson University's College of Liberal Arts until April 2009 after the construction of the CLA building. Currently, Linthicum Hall serves as Towson University's Health Professions building, housing majors such as Nursing and providing students with top of the line skill labs to aid in their education.

Linthicum Hall

Richmond Hall was completed on October 20th 1974, and was open for use starting October 22nd.The 1960’s and 1970’s were decades of awareness and advocating for women. During the latter half of 1975 on Towson State College campus, a group of students and staff started a series of programs titled, “Focus on Women”.Focus on Women became a desirable program amongst student-residents and staff. Some topics that the lecture series has addressed are:&nbsp;&nbsp;Rape, Male-female relationships, and Black Women Today. The topics of the first series in 1975 were:&nbsp;Female Sexual Response, Sexism in Education, and a Women’s Lifestylesl.The “Sexism in Education” session consisted of special guests Jane Brown from the Baltimore County Board of Education and Pete Tribley from Montgomery County Department of Human Relations. Brown and Tribley engaged the students in a discussion about&nbsp;education and cultivated sexism. The members of this program hoped that education majors would attend this meeting in particular to aid in eliminating sexism.The “Women’s Lifestyle” panel consisted of a number of career women who could speak to the challenges and opportunities of a professional career. This panel was created in hopes to increase awareness of career paths for students.

Richmond Hall is currently a residence hall on Towson University's campus. Richmond Hall has been named after the Baltimore native, Sarah Elizabeth Richmond for her unconditional love for education. By the year 1868, Miss Sarah Richmond was a mathematics professor at the Maryland State Normal School. In the year 1915 Miss Richmond moved the school to the Towson area, and in 1916 resigned her duties as principal to become the Dean of the school. In addition to her commitments at the Normal School, Miss Richmond was also the first female president of the Maryland State Teachers Association. During the 1960’s and 1970’s on Towson State University campus, Richmond Hall held numerous events for the inclusion and advancement of women. 



Richmond Hall

Maryland State Normal School, now Towson University, was established in 1865. The fledgling school rented space in existing buildings throughout this area of downtown Baltimore until 1876, when this classroom, library, and administrative building was opened. This building was soon inadequate to house the growing school, fueled by increased demand for trained educators in the rapidly-growing public schools of the state. However, there was little room for the school to expand within this section of the city. With the support of the state legislature, the school expanded to its current location in Towson with the acquisition of former farmland and the construction of several buildings in 1915. On November 14th, 1975, a very important event occurred at Towson's campus at Stephens Hall. Famously known as the&nbsp;Masters and Johnson sexuality research team, comprised of&nbsp;American gynecologist Dr. William Masters and sexologist Virginia Johnson, came to give a presentation on human sexuality. During this time period, women had been extremely oppressed in all aspects of their sexuality, unable to express themselves in any way. That is one of the reasons this presentation was so important because it made taboo topics such as sex an open forum to discuss with the students, especially women,&nbsp;of Towson University.&nbsp;Masters and Johnson were known for pioneering research into the nature of human sexual response and treatments relating to sexual disorders and dysfunctions. Together they had also published two best-selling books in their field,&nbsp;Human Sexual Response&nbsp;and&nbsp;Human Sexual Inadequacy in 1966&nbsp;and 1970.&nbsp; Both have done extensive research in field of human sexual activity, used for the purpose of obtaining information for the “realistic treatment of sex problems."&nbsp;Prior to their interest in the field, sexuality had been a widely controversial study due to sex being looked down upon in the public eye, as something you didn't talk about in public.&nbsp; Conducted as a "standing room only" presentation in Stephens Hall, the duo presented their findings to whoever decided to attend. However, Virginia Johnson was unable to attend that day due to a severe case of laryngitis. The entire presentation itself focused on sex as an effective means of&nbsp;communication and for us to be able to enjoy sex as a natural function. Masters states, "No one has had the privilege of living with sex as a natural function because our culture has denied us this privilege." Due&nbsp;to an extreme double standard in our society that one could argue still exists today, Masters explains is the cause for such an enormous influence on a culture.&nbsp; Prior to 1972, 97% of sexual education how-to books were written by men for men on&nbsp;what a woman wanted sexually from her partner. During this time period women did not have the cultural privilege or&nbsp;ability to educate men on what they actually wanted from them. Masters explained that in order to be able to ever solve this problem, men must remove the beginning of time notion that "we are expert" and actually try listening to the women. He then went on to talk about that another huge misconception sexually is that of the elderly. For example, if a older man wanted to have sexual relations in our society he would be considered a "dirty man". Dr. Masters also compared elderly nursing homes to college dormitories, stating how there is a huge lack of sexual interchange taking place. He lectured that our culture does not accept the fact that growing older does not decline your sexual interests, or cause&nbsp;you to&nbsp;become dysfunctional or inadequate.&nbsp;

Constructed between 1912 and 1915 and named in honor of the state superintendent of education who supported Maryland State Normal School's acquisition of 80 acres in Towson, Stephens Hall served as a classroom and central administration building throughout until the university's administrative staff became so large that a new seperate administrative building was deemed necessary. Architect Douglas H. Thomas Jr. modeled the building on Blickling Hall, an English manor house that was once home to Anne Boleyn, the second and most famous wife of England's King Henry VIII. The building now houses several academic departments and a 680-seat theater for music, lectures, and theatrical  performances.

Stephens Hall was one of three buildings on the new campus of Maryland State Normal School when it moved from Baltimore to Towson. 

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Student Life in the 1960s and 1970s

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