Protests Erupt
On May 15, 1963, on the eve of final exams, several hundred students left their dorms and assembled in Healy Circle. There they aired a list of grievances that included administrative secrecy regarding use of fees and tuition, mediocre quality of theology courses, oppressive disciplinary measures, and deplorable quality of the cafeteria food.1 This was part of the "spring madness" that other prestigious institutions were experiencing, such as Brown and Princeton, where male students expressed discontent against sexual repression.2
Violence soon erupted as students detonated firecrackers and then raided the girls’ dormitory at the Georgetown Visitation Convent for underwear. The DC Metropolitan Police Department arrived, dispersed the crowd, and arrested nine students.3
The next day, the University administration ordered the students to assemble in the New South Cafeteria. While the students received the sternest of lectures, someone set fire to the old Annex building on 37th Street which was slated for demolition. The fire department was unable to contain the blaze, and students cheered as the Annex burnt to the ground. Police arrested two juniors for the arson, but both were released after passing a lie detector test.4
Response to Protests
WTOP-TV reporter Sam Donaldson interviewed Georgetown students after the riots. One student said, "No one really knows who it was. The other students don't know if it was Georgetown students, or other university students, or some nut off the street." Another expressed discontent over the riots, saying, "just a small minority are giving Georgetown a very bad name."5
Meanwhile, the archbishop of Washington, DC issued a formal letter in response to the students’ behavior. He warned that a male’s trespassing on cloistered property, for any reason, including a “panty raid” was cause for excommunication from the Catholic Church. Another letter from the student body president warned that the protests and mass demonstrations were unproductive. Rather, the college student council would form a sixteen-member student-faculty grievance board to field student complaints. During the board’s hearings in the fall, students testified about several academic and disciplinary concerns, but the board took little action and soon became moot.6
In 1966, 3 years after the riots, Academic Vice-President the Reverend Thomas Fitzgerald, S.J. cited the spring riots as the impetus for a "consistent change" from the "significant antagonism of the early '60's." 7Since then, the university has been working to improve relations with students and open up communication channels.
- 1Emmett Curran, Robert. “The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889.” 1993, p.366.
- 2Patterson, Troy. "The Sins of the Georgetown Sex Riots." Slate, May 15, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20211018021259/https://slate.com/culture/2013/05/georgetown-sex-riots-of-1963-a-sad-footnote-to-a-riotous-spring.html
- 3Id. at 367.
- 4Lie Detector Tests Clear 2 in GU Fire, The Washington Post, May 19, 1963, p.D31 Accessed through ProQuest Historical Newspapers
- 5"WTOP-TV News Report on Georgetown Riots." DigitalGeorgetown Georgetown University Archives, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, 17 May 1963, http://hdl.handle.net/10822/711285
- 6Id.
- 7"Editorials: The Pains and Purposes of Growing Up" The Hoya, vol. 49, no. 1., 22 September 1966, http://hdl.handle.net/10822/555251
