Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya

From the outside, 1410 36th Street looks like any of the surrounding residences – a white, two-story townhouse with a narrow three-step porch.

But to many students at Georgetown, it’s known as the Black House, established 30 years ago after 10 black students protested in then-University President Rev. Robert J. Henle, S.J.’s, office for more minority services.

And with the month of February recognized by many as Black History Month, the house, to many students, stands as a symbol of Georgetown’s black history and will be the sight of celebrations and commemoration activities.

Under the auspices of the Center for Minority Educational Affairs, the Black House is a multicultural epicenter for students of color in the Georgetown community. Occupied by three residents this semester, the house sponsors programs geared specifically toward all students of color, not just black students.

Originally, however, the Black House was located on O Street and was known as the Black Student Alliance House. Formerly, the BSA president automatically became the resident director of the house.

The focus has somewhat changed through the years to be more culturally inclusive and the house’s resident director is not always the president of BSA.

For Veronica Root (MSB ’05), a black student who serves as resident director of the Black House and president of the BSA, the house serves as a getaway for students of color.

“I really feel like it’s a safe haven,” Root said.

Root’s housemates, Cynthia Martinez who is exican-American (SFS ’05) and Anthony Jones (COL ’05) who is African-American, echo her sentiments.

“Students of color have two primary resources here: CMEA and the Black House. CMEA covers educational needs, helping with books, tutors, mentorship, etc. The Black House is the avenue of cultural expression. The two work together,” Martinez said.

Martinez feels the Black House provides services for students in ways other parts of campus and groups do not.

“While there are a lot of great things about this school, I found that I, as a student of color, felt greatly underserved. ainstream Joe-Jane Hoya Georgetown doesn’t really leave too much room for black, Latino, Asian or GLBTQ students.”

Jones said he sees the house as “a cultural space where minorities come to enjoy themselves in a nurturing and understanding environment” adding that “minority students at Georgetown do not have many things to personally call theirs.”

Black male students get to call the Black House their own at a monthly discussion and bonding event called Brother 2 Brother, which is hosted at the house and sponsored by the Georgetown University Chapter of the NAACP.

Matt Gadsden (MSB ’05), treasurer for the political activist group who coordinates the session, said, “It is a place where we can do group work, have meetings, socialize, have formal and informal discussions and basically utilize for any discretionary purpose.”

Gadsden said it helps, too, that there is not as much paperwork needed to use the Black House as there is when reserving a campus space through OCAF.

And the house stays pretty busy.

With an average of three to four programs per week, the house can get crowded and noisy. On any given night between the peak hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., there could be a group of students watching a movie or music blaring from the CD player, a jam-packed groove party on the weekend or an informational meeting from the Georgetown Law Center or Teach for America. Florescent flyers plastered around the house alert students to what is going on in the house for upcoming weeks.

Before applying to live in the house, residents are made aware of the house dynamics.

“Sometimes during midterms it’s really antsy having a lot of people in the house,” Root explained.

Still, Root said that she wished more students would apply to live in the Black House as well as use its services.

“[The] house is not being utilized as much as it could be,” she said.

While many students often visit and fill the house, it still has more potential to be reached, Root said.

That potential to be a consistent “hang out” spot for students of color is what the Black House is all about. Michele Campbell Evans, who serves as the adviser for the residents as well as the assistant director of academic services and an academic adviser for CMEA, said.

At the house, students “can have comfortable conversations without someone standing over them monitoring everything,” she added.

CMEA does not have as much flexibility to put on programs for students of color, Dennis Williams, director of CMEA and interim associate dean of students, explained.

“Actually, other universities have more,” Williams said, pointing out that universities tend to meet the full need of minority students through, for example, various cultural residences.

“I still think now, 30 to 35 years after integration, there is still a need for students of color to have certain kinds of services and programs to address their needs,” Williams said. “For our purposes it makes sense to empower students with responsibility to provide programs for their peers.”

As far as the number of applications received each year, it varies, Williams explained. “These things sort of move in cycles,” he said. “In terms of the use of the house, I haven’t seen a decline in the demand for it.”

Because the Black House is not administered by University Facilities and Student housing, he said, the house can provide an alternative housing option for students.

“I do think the opening of the Southwest Quad will present challenges for us in the future because that will have effects on demand of alternate housing,” Williams said.

While the Black House may be unfamiliar to many white students, Jennifer Hamilton (COL ’04), who is white, heard about the house through friends and her work with CMEA as a tutor. Having attended lecture events and other programs at the house, she said, “I have felt both welcome and comfortable on those occasions.”

Hamilton said the house is necessary because it gives students a place to express and discuss pertinent issues whereas they may not otherwise be able to in what she refers to as “an environment that sometimes can represent a very singular perspective.”

But Hamilton may be a rare case in knowing of and actually taking part in the Black house.

“I do not know if I can really speak for the majority of white students on campus, but I have the sense that many of them do not know about the programming that goes on at the Black House, and those students who do may not be attracted to the types of programming, for whatever reason,” she said.

One reason may be because the programming is planned with a target audience in mind, usually minority students.

And thus, some students say the house should be just for Black or minority students since it began that way.

“I wouldn’t have a problem with it being an all black house,” Root said.

In order for that to happen, though, she said black students would have to show more interest than they have and use the house more regularly.

“[There] need to be people dedicated to the community, and if black people aren’t going to use it, there’s no reason why others shouldn’t,” she said.

Even still, the house has always been multicultural.

Latinos lived in the house in the 1970s, and there was an Asian resident director in the ’90s, explained Williams.

“The biggest change is that it used to be single-sex,” Williams said.

But with groups ranging from Georgetown NAACP to GU Pride using the house, some students in recent years have questioned whether or not the name of the house should change and if the house is straying from its original mission.

Jessica Rucker (COL ’05), who is Black, said it’s a positive thing that the Black House has become an increasingly multi-cultural place, “but at the same time people aren’t paying homage to the original vision.” The Black House is to be a spot for politically motivated black students, “a safe base, to help and encourage Georgetown to recruit more black faculty and students of color.”

Rucker said the changing face of the house is typical of what happens to resources intended for blacks. “Whatever is deemed as `black,’ it is so easy to be shafted. I feel like black people will start something that will work and it will get popular or whatever and other people will hop on to it.”

CMEA and this year’s residents tout multiculturalism, though the concept has not been similarly embraced by all students familiar with the house.

Martinez said she is disappointed that people might disapprove of the expanded constituency of the Black House.

“Truth be told, a lot of people don’t feel that I should be here because I’m not black. I’m the first non-black resident in two years,” she said.

“I get reactions from people all the time, asking me what I’m doing here, making me feel like I shouldn’t be here. I had one administrator who thought that the only reason I lived here was because the university probably ran out of black students for the house and just needed someone to fill in a vacancy,” she said. “I think it’s sad to tell you the truth.”

In light of these challenges, Martinez said she cherishes her fellow residents because they have supported her countless times, and she’s not willing to give up.

“The mission that I have in my mind to accomplish is too satisfying to succumb to a few close-minded individuals.”

As the make-up of the house has changed and varied though the years, the Black House has come a long way, birthed from a history of black students’ struggle at Georgetown. Residents noted that the House can continue serving students in that struggle as well as being an easy-going place. For Gadsden, the Black House is not only a part of Georgetown’s history, but also of its present and future.

“The Black House was given to the community of Georgetown through the voice of many Georgetown students who clamored for something to call their own,” he said, “and we must embrace it.”