Remembering “the Black Room” in Mood Hall
Amid a challenging social climate, early Black students at Southwestern created a space of their own in the dormant Mood Hall that they called “the Black Room.”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Southwestern University began enrolling its first Black students, the broader campus climate remained challenging. Formalized social avenues such as fraternities, sororities, and other traditional student organizations, had long been defined by white students’ presence and preferences. Black students, who arrived in small numbers and often on the university’s invitation to “integrate” the university without support systems in place, found themselves navigating an environment where integration was more an ideal than a lived reality.
In this setting, several of the earliest Black students sought a space they could shape on their own terms. Recognizing the need for a place where they could gather, talk openly, and share experiences without the overt and subtle cues that they were outsiders, they turned to the closed-off upper floors of Mood Hall. There, they identified an unused decommissioned dorm room that became known among Black students simply as “the Black Room.”
With the approval of Dean of Students Bill Swift, the group transformed this little-known, vacant room into their own communal hub. They furnished it with comfortable seating, personal decorations, and a stereo--items that brought familiarity, warmth, and a sense of home to a campus environment that could feel isolating. In this space, Black students could reconnect with aspects of their cultural identities that campus life often left untouched. They listened to music, tuning in to Taylor, Texas’s Black DJ, Tony Von, and they laughed over inside jokes and exchanged perspectives without the need to self-censor or code-switch. In an institution where belonging often seemed elusive, the Black Room offered a sheltered moment of authenticity. It was indeed just a moment, because in 1975, a few years after the Black Room was created, Mood Hall was significantly renovated and the name was changed to Mood-Bridwell Hall, forever changing it from a student space to a more general academic space for classrooms, labs, and faculty offices.
The Black Room’s significance went beyond decor or convenience. It represented a tactical response to racial exclusion. While other (White) students congregated in fraternity houses, sorority rooms, or other institutionally-designated belonging spaces, the Black Room stood as a testament to initiative and self-determination. It was a place where younger and older students could meet, share academic advice, and encourage one another to persist despite visible and invisible barriers. Another significant fact about the Black Room was that it was a co-ed space, where Mood Hall had always been gender-segregated as a dorm. Eventually, the sense of purpose that defined this space helped give rise to BOSS (Black Organization for Social Survival), a student-led group formed to address the social challenges that could not be solved by a single room alone.
Though short-lived, the Black Room symbolized a critical step in creating community and establishing a collective voice. It provided relief from isolation, nurtured friendships, and helped early Black students at Southwestern claim a corner of the university’s landscape in one of the oldest buildings on campus as their own. In doing so, the Black Room became more than four walls--it became part of a legacy, one that reflected the resilience, resourcefulness, and unity of a group determined to be more than guests at the institution they called home.
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