Bowie State University News November 6, 2015 Historic Bowie State Student Protest Highlighted in Original Play Debut Performances Nov. 19-22 Celebrate Bowie State's 150th Anniversary (BOWIE, Md.) - On April 4, 1968, 227 students from Bowie State College, now Bowie State University, marched into the Maryland State House, demanding a meeting with Governor Spiro Agnew. Their request: increased state funding to renovate aging academic buildings and student housing. They marched into history that day - it was the same day that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. This little known event in Bowie State's history is the subject of a new play, "Fourth of April,"<http://www.bowiestate.edu/about/calendar/details/the-fourth-of-april/2015-11-19/> part of Bowie State's yearlong 150th anniversary celebration<http://www.bowiestate.edu/150th/> as Maryland's oldest historically black college or university. Purchase your tickets. <http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2414130>Written by BSU assistant professor Bob Bartlett, the play will run from Nov. 19-22 in the Fine and Performing Arts Center's Main Stage. It is directed by the Helen Hayes Award-nominated Psalmayene 24<http://gurmanagency.com/selected-clients/psalmayene-24-2/>. It features a small cast of student actors who will portray the activities of the protest of that day and video vignettes of BSU alumni who participate in those protests. In 1968, the protest at the State House capped a week of protests on campus. When Governor Agnew refused to meet with the students, he ordered that they be sent to jail. While imprisoned, the students learned of Dr. King's assassination. "The Fourth of April" tells the story of the courageous, determined students who fought for better conditions on campus by taking their concerns to the highest level of state government. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.