Student Housing at IU Bloomington

Although IU admitted its first African American student in 1882, African American students were not allowed to live on campus. Eventually, in 1947, this bar was lifted. Even then the university did not house White and African American students in the same rooms. African American students were assigned African American roommates. Former Miss Indiana University, Nancy Streets-Lyons recalled an error made in her room assignment when she entered Indiana University in 1957 and she was paired with a White roommate – who had no difficulty with the rooming assignment. However, Streets-Lyons recalled that at the time “Bloomington was not a very nice place to be for black people” … “[Y]ou really had to pay attention to what you were doing”. She made the decision to room with her cousin in another residence hall to, in her words, “keep the peace”. Prior to this, students rented rooms in private houses that were willing to accommodate them. This was not always without difficulties as recounted in the experience of Carrie Parker who matriculated in 1898.