Page 15 - Windows Newsletter Spring 2016
P. 15
TCU A GENTLER KIND OF PROTEST
LIBRARY
As 1960s sit-ins rose in popularity, TCU was
home to a sit-out
by Marcia Melton, TCU Magazine, Winter 2016
The renovated Mary Couts Burnett Library offers state-
of-the-art facilities almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But this kind of access to the library wasn’t always the case,
especially on weekends
On the lawn outside the library in February 1963, a group of
students gathered to protest. It wasn’t a march and it wasn’t a
sit-in. It was a sit-out.
Many students, especially those who worked while attending
classes, had lobbied the library staff for open hours on
Sundays. A 1962 TCU Skiff article titled, “Never on Sunday”
remarked that, “Sunday, despite the Christian tradition, usually
is not a day of rest for students...It could be an excellent day for
research and other library work.”
Students also reminded university administration that other
Southwest Conference schools had regular Sunday library
hours. At first, administrators were unmoved, claiming that
Sunday hours would stretch the budget and students wouldn’t
use the library on Sundays anyway. But, in the fall semester of
1962, the library had opened on two Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m.
By the beginning of the next spring semester, students were
FEATURES again agitating for Sunday openings.
4 Message from the Dean 10 TCU Texas Book Award On that Sunday afternoon in 1963, a group of students took
the next step. With their protest signs, they gathered books and
papers, and “sat out” on the lawn around the library.
5 TCU Students Love the Library 12 Joyce Pate Capper Receives Order of the
Crown Oak “If the Library were open, we’d be inside,” read several signs.
6 Love Letters One sign, posted on the (locked) front doors of the library
Special Collections Exhibit 13 Library Aquires Manuscript Diary of stated: “This door is our education to closed.”
Sarah Bowdoin Dearborn
7 TCU Press The 1963 Horned Frog described the event this way: “Not a shot
Honors & New Releases 14 #DearWorld was fired. Not a battle cry was heard. But it was still a revolt.”
Students, faculty and staff share personal
8 An Evening of Great Conversation messages through photo portraits The library committee finally agreed to schedule regular Sunday
hours. Starting in the fall of 1963, it opened on Sundays. The
An evening of serious fun Koelker and TCU Magazine next year, the library committee included students as members
15 A Gentler Kind of Protest for the first time.
As 1960s sit-ins rse in popularity, TCU was
home to a sit-out
In the early 1960s, students successfully lobbied for Sunday library hours and seats on the library’s policy committee.
2 TCU Library Spring 2016 15
