The mural in this atrium is one of several in Oscar Ritchie Hall created by 鶹ý alumnus Ernest Pryor. It honors the members of Black United Students who founded Black History Month at Kent State in February 1970.
Pryor's first murals were part of the 1972 redecoration of Oscar Ritchie Hall (which had formerly been the Student Union) when it became the home of the Department of Pan-African Studies, Institute for African-American Affairs and Center of Pan-African Culture.
As a student, Pryor approached Kent State Professor Emeritus Edward Crosby, who was then the director of the institute, to ask about painting the walls. Crosby believed that hallways should be as educational as classrooms, so he allowed Pryor to paint a small classroom as a trial.
Once he saw the progress in the classroom, Crosby was impressed enough to let him work on the main first-floor hallway and then other classrooms. He also provided Pryor with money for paint.
Pryor’s interest in decorating the walls answered a deficiency Crosby felt all school buildings have.
“I always felt that the hallways in these buildings are dead,” Crosby said." I felt that most of my teaching was done in hallways, and indeed, most of the faculty sat in hallways and taught students.”
When Oscar Ritchie Hall was extensively renovated in 2006, some of these murals were removed. Before the renovation, special care was taken to preserve much of the fragile artwork on the walls through large format photography that could be used to create full-size reproductions of the murals.
The spaces inside Oscar Ritchie Hall are alive with art. You can view many of the pieces on display through a.