By Ashleigh Fields
AFRO Assistant Editor
afields@afro.com
Howard University officials are looking into a recent break-in at Benjamin E. Mays Hall, which housed the institution’s School of Divinity from 1987 to 2015.
A viral video shows the individuals breaking into the building through the mechanical entrance. Vandals recorded themselves deploying a dry ice fire extinguisher inside, roaming through the stairwells, hallways and empty classrooms in a post on the @urbexjetz account via social media.
Upon posting the exploit, the trespassers received significant backlash online and defended their actions, before ultimately deleting the recording.
“One of the individuals that I was with was an African-American who was also curious on the history of his relative’s school. (you can see him for a split second in the video) ,” wrote the Instagram user. “I do not make these videos to diminish the institutions who the property belongs to, but rather to raise awareness on these type of things. I am always working with people who have the power and will to restore these historic buildings and everything that rests inside.”
Further posts went on to state that the video was taken a long time ago and that the conditions of the building have since deteriorated.
“The entire building can still be restored and repurposed. I hope that after raising awareness on this issue, proper precautions will be taken to secure the building from any further vandalism and theft,” the account owner shared in a separate post.
Rev. Kenyatta Gilbert who serves as the dean of Howard University’s School of Divinity issued a statement on the matter shortly after viewing the video, which has since been removed.
“While DPS (Department of Public Safety) continues to investigate, we want to make it abundantly clear that the University condemns the unlawful entry of this group of misinformed individuals,” Gilbert wrote. “In 2015, the School of Divinity was relocated from Mays Hall on the University’s East Campus to its current home at the University’s West Campus, as the East Campus site was planned for redevelopment. At that time, all primary instructional content necessary for maintaining the school’s coursework and accreditation was transferred to the school’s new location.”
“Despite the University’s efforts to remove historically relevant materials from the site in 2015, the actions of those who trespassed and broke into Mays Hall remind us how some are willing to violate the sacred boundaries of our beloved HBCU campuses and threaten to embolden others with similar actions.”
The university shared that monthly check-ins were occurring prior to the trespassing incident but have now increased to a daily patrol and 24 hour surveillance.
Numerous copies of the Christian Recorder, the nation’s oldest continuously published Black newspaper, full sets of the 1868 British and Foreign Evangelical Review in addition to awards from the Bishop Ministers Conference of Philadelphia and Vicinity were combed through in the recording.
“When the team went in in 2015 to do the assessment, they made an inventory of what’s taken out, where it was going and then what’s remaining. Items that were deemed less significant for instruction and research remained there; most of those materials were European field theology, divinity text and White American text. Things that weren’t tied to Howard’s mission, which is the global Black experience,” said Benjamin Talton, director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at the University. “ We have off-site storage for collections that are not often sought after by researchers and patrons of the library. We have multiple storage facilities on our main campus, and we have multiple storage facilities off campus. Once they removed the relevant material from the Divinity School, the collections that remained there that we saw as not tied to the global Black experience that for all intents and purposes became a storage facility.These materials were not abandoned. They weren’t thrown away. They’re not being neglected. They were just deemed as being in storage.”
Talton said any Black texts that remained on site are likely items that the University has duplicates and triplicates of in addition to mentioning that President Ben Vincent and Dean Gilbert recently visited the hall. The Moorland-Spingarn team also visited the building to conduct a reassessment of artifacts during the week of Jan. 8.
“The individuals were intruders who made the conscious decision to take actions that were harmful and of no regard,” said Jennifer Early, president of the Graduate Student Council at Howard. “Our history is one of pride and importance, archival materials give voice and breathe life into our rich history and the Black experience. These experiences deserve to be respected, protected and preserved.”
The East Campus is where notable graduates studied to earn their degrees, including Barbara Williams Skinner, D. Min., founding executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Carla Brailey, Ph.D., executive director of community affairs and senior advisor for religious affairs for the District of Columbia and Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., D.Min., dean of the Joint College of African American Pentecostal Bishops. The building was named after Mays, who was a Black educational and spiritual maverick that served as the dean of the School of Religion from 1943 to 1940 and president of Morehouse college for 27 years.
“In a moment where Black History is under attack on multiple fronts– ranging from book bans to whitewashing and obfuscation of Black lived experience, protecting primary sources is vital as we maintain and build institutions that provide Black students the freedom to learn about our history,” said Michael Franklin, former student body vice president. “I trust in Howard University’s leadership to put in the necessary work to protect and preserve the archives.”
Howard’s School of Divinity currently stands as one of only six Historically Black Theological Institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.
“Despite the University’s efforts to remove historically relevant materials from the site in 2015, the actions of those who trespassed and broke into Mays Hall remind us how some are willing to violate the sacred boundaries of our beloved HBCU campuses and threaten to embolden others with similar actions,” read the statement from the current dean. “In light of this incident, Howard University’s Department of Public Safety will ramp up existing patrols of the site and the University will work to reassess the contents of the building and secure it from unlawful access.”
