Springfield College has contributed three collections for Project Stand, including Springfield College Office of the President Records, The Springfield College Civil Rights Oral History Collection, and The Lawrence M. Libow Springfield College Protests papers.
Springfield College Office of the President Records: Contains materials that document events pertaining to the civil rights protests on the Springfield College campus in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as around the nation at that time. The Springfield College student body was shaken up in May 1969 after black students took over the Administration building in response to a denial of demands made of the school administration for more black power. Another group of students took over Massasoit Hall, a coed dormitory building, on March 10, 1970 and forced the students who lived there out, as a protest of the college administrators’ refusal to accept a new list of terms for additional services for the black Springfield College student body. The students that participated in this takeover were arrested and charged with civil contempt, with 47 of the 49 students charged serving jail time. The majority of the material in the collection is comprised of letters and documents sent between the black students group, then-president Wilbert Locklin, and the administrative staff of the school. These documents contain the lists of demands created by the black students’ group, and the return letters from Locklin stating his reluctance to accept them. Along with these documents are newspaper clippings detailing not only the events that transpired on the Springfield campus, but on other campuses across the nation that experienced civil rights protests by their students. The collection also contains several periodicals and magazines whose topics range from college protests to Bobby Seale and Malcolm X. These periodicals and magazines contain an insight into the culture of rebellion prevalent at the time. Along with the collections of clippings and correspondence are personal writings from both students and faculty expressing their opinions on the events that occurred at the time.
The Springfield College Civil Rights Oral History Collection: Contains the oral histories of Springfield College (SC) alumni, faculty, and administrators who were present on campus during or leading up to the SC Black student protests in 1969-1970, along with materials collected and created before and after these interviews. The oral histories highlight the time of civil unrest on the SC campus in 1969-1970 and contain first-hand accounts of the activism and of the various reactions on and off campus. Materials in this collection include audio recordings, video recordings done through Zoom, transcripts of the oral histories, interviewer questions, biographical sketches of the Black student activists, resumes, class directions & materials, and signed release forms. Materials date from the fall 2019 semester to the fall 2021 semester.
The Lawrence M. Libow Springfield College Protests papersLawrence Libow would graduate from Springfield College with a B.S. in August 1971. Frustrated with policies and administration at SC, Libow was deeply involved in trying to change the school. He helped found a club known as the Resistance Unity, and Brotherhood, wrote a newspaper column called “On The Left” and a photographer for the Springfield College student newspaper, The Student, was an elected member of the Student Council, representing Alumni Hall, a member of the SC Outing Club, and participated in the protests and building takeovers during 1969 and 1970 to push for changes at the college, specifically, but not limited to, Black Student rights. A Physical Education major, he received Advanced Standing in that major before changing his major to Community Leadership and Development. Materials in the collection include reports, printed materials, correspondence, notes, memos, and photographs collected by or created by Larry Libow during his time at Springfield College regarding the Black Student protests and racial tensions at Springfield College from 1969-1971. This includes original/signed demands and statements on the occupying of the Administration Building and the Rationale for the Black Student Demands. There are also several documents written by the student committees and student task forces, as well as documents written by faculty and administration. Special printed documents include a couple issues of the 1968 student newspaper “The Goat” and a manuscript called “The Liberator: a disinformation manual.”
Primary contact: Jeff Monseau