After a break-in at Howard University’s (HU) shuttered Benjamin E. Mays Hall went viral on social media, HU’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center received numerous phone calls from community members concerned about what appeared to be the abandonment of crucial books and artifacts.
However, Dr. Benjamin Talton, director of HU’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center said that most of the books seen collecting dust in the TikTok video pose little significance to the research and instructional goals of HU School of Divinity students, faculty and staff.
“There were books [that are] tied to European and white American theology,” Talton said. “[These are] resources that HU students aren’t requesting. Few if any of them will be assigned to students. There’s no utility.”
The TikTok video that circulated during the latter part of December showed at least three young white people breaking into and walking through Mays Hall.
The trio is seen sifting through old books and newspapers, marveling at old computers and A/V equipment, using a fire extinguisher, playing a piano, entering a dormitory room, and attempting to climb atop a bell tower.
The creator of the TikTok video can be heard in the now deleted post admitting to breaking into the building through a mechanical room after much trouble finding an entranceway. In a statement, the Rev. Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, dean of HU School of Divinity, called the incident a violation of “sacred boundaries of our sacred HBCU campuses.”
Mays Hall, in existence since 1987, shuttered in 2015 when HU School of Divinity relocated to HU’s West Campus.
That year, HU conducted an inventory check within Mays Hall and, with the help of a contractor, transported volumes of high-value art collections, administrative files, School of Divinity books, and other archival and instructional material to Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Founder’s Library, and HU’s Law Library.
In the nine years since the closure of Mays Hall, campus police have conducted regular patrols of the surrounding area and there hasn’t been much, if any, traffic in the building, university officials said.
HU administrators are currently in the midst of an investigation into security procedures and the extent of the damage done by the winter break intruders. Part of that investigation, Talton told The Informer, involves assessing the steps beyond security patrols that HU administration can to prevent future break-ins.
“Mays Hall was considered an inactive storage facility until this incident happened.” Talton told The Informer. “HU Police did regular patrols there. There were no windows. The individuals who made the video broke into the library. They didn’t just walk in there. This was a criminal act.”
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to secure the police report from HU’s police department and information about administrators’ findings about the quality of security at the Mays Building.
In 2017, HU started the redevelopment of East Campus, as outlined in the District’s comprehensive plan. A collaboration with the D.C. Preservation League will result in the East Campus’ designation as a historic landmark.
Meanwhile, HU Moorland-Spingarn Research Center continues in its efforts to digitize and make its archives more accessible to community members across the world. This mission started in 2015, around the time of Mays Hall’s closure, when Moorland-Spingarn Research Center launched its Digital Production Center.
In 2022, a $2 million grant by the Johnson Logan Family Foundation allowed for the digitization of Moorland-Spingarn Research Center’s Black Press archives. This endeavor, to be done in partnership with HU’s Center for Journalism and Democracy, ensures that more than 100,000 issues of historic Black-owned publications can be accessed online.
That includes not only newspapers but also records of Black editors, publishers and journalists.
“We’re in a position to bring HU’s intellectual property to the 21st century,” Talton said. “We’re in the process of digitizing audio/visual assets — large collections of VHS cassettes that are now antiquated. Anything on magnetic tape. We’re preserving the recordings of speeches and performances, getting the resources online. We’re making the collectives available for the next 300 years and equally accessible for the next generation.”
