But the curfew, he recalled, was not at the forefront of the average Harvard student’s mind.

“Most Harvard men didn’t understand how second-class it made the women seem. On the other hand, I don’t think they thought about it a terrible lot either,” Churchill said.

BREAKING CURFEW

In May of 1962, the women of Radcliffe prepared to vote.

First, they voted on the inception of the RGA, which would give students more control over the rules at Radcliffe. When the vote came back in favor of a student government, they took up the issue of the curfew. After months of planning, they brought the measure to a vote. The women voted 500-200 in favor of unlimited sign outs for everyone past the first eight weeks of sophomore year.

But that wasn’t the end of the negotiations. The plan also had to get past the Radcliffe administration.

By early June, the students and the faculty had reached a compromise: the curfew was abolished for juniors, as it had been seniors.

Of her own life under the curfew, Herron said, “We sometimes took it for granted. We sometimes worked around it.”

For Herron and the other members of the class of 1962, the change would have no direct effect on their lives. Before the new rules came into effect, they had already left the Quad behind.

But Herron and her classmates understood—and still understand—the significance of their actions.

“We sometimes—increasingly— moved with one foot in the ’50s and ’60s. We sometimes trialed and we sometimes triumphed and moved things forward,” she said.

That spring, the members of the Class of 1962 trialed and triumphed, and the women of Radcliffe—many of whom had been trained their whole lives to stay within the rules laid out for them—took a step forward with a small part of their lives in their own hands.

—Staff writer Maya S. Jonas-Silver can be reached at mayajonas-silver@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Jessica C. Salley can be reached at jsalley@college.harvard.edu.