California State University, Northridge

October 24, 1996

Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
(818) 677-2130
cchandler@exec.csun.edu

Takeover of San Fernando Valley State Revisited

Northridge student T-Fox will star in "The Times of the Furnaces," written and directed by award-winning New York playwright and author Earl Anthony exclusively for CSUN. The play is adapted from Anthony's book "The Time of the Furnaces: A Case Study of Black Student Revolt."

The performances are scheduled from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Campus Theater in the university's Speech-Drama Building on the southwest corner of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

The drama chronicles the events leading to and after Nov. 4, 1968, when more than 20 African American students took over the fifth floor of the administration building of what was then San Fernando Valley State College protesting the institution's treatment of minority students.

The at-times violent stand-off eventually led to the creation of Pan African and Chicano studies departments at what is now Cal State Northridge. It also resulted in the harshest criminal penalties for students involved in any campus protest in American history. Those students prosecuted became known as the San Fernando Valley State 19.

One of the 19, Vaya Crockett, will serve as master of ceremonies for the play's presentation. The play is sponsored by CSUN's DuBois-Hammer Institute for African-American Achievement.

The program is dedicated to Jerome Walker, president of San Fernando Valley State's Black Student Union at the time of the take over and one of the founding members of CSUN's Pan African Studies Department. Walker has been hospitalized since February, when he suffered a massive heart attack during the last quarter mile of the Los Angeles Marathon.

For more information, call the DuBois-Hammer Institute at (818) 677-3311.