Howard University says the most important artifacts from the building that formerly housed the School of Divinity are safe after a break-in.
The university says TikTok video shows people breaking into Benjamin E. Mays Hall sometime in the past year. A group walked through a library, flipped through books and used a fire extinguisher.
“All of the critical assets, all of these items that we say are critical to understanding, researching and writing on the Black experience, they’re all safe, and they’re being supervised by highly professional staff,” Moorland-Spingarn Research Center Director Benjamin Talton said.
In 2015, the university went through a process to remove the most important artifacts from Mays Hall, he said.
“It was determined that these were books that were collected since the 19th century that are historically noteworthy but not significant in terms of what Howard University students, faculty and staff are doing in terms of their research, writing and teaching,” Talton said.
He said the building is being used as a storage facility but at one point was the cornerstone of the college’s divinity school, which is now housed in the same building as the School of Law.
Since Mays’ closure, the university has worked to redevelop the land in conjunction with D.C. and other agencies.
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DC Preservation League Executive Director Rebecca Miller says the building is going through a process to become an individual D.C. landmark.
“I think that Howard University owns a tremendous number of historic buildings, and they’ve made great strides in recent years to protect those buildings and work with the neighbors,” she said.
Talton says Howard has the tools to sustain its archives and is working to help other historically Black colleges and universities.
“Not every university, particularly HBCUs, are in the position that Howard’s in, so our goal is as we grow, we want to bring the other HBCUs with us,” he said.
Howard says it has increased patrols around Mays Hall and will continue to do so in the future.
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