Administrators, faculty and alumni from Brown and Tougaloo College, a historically black college in Jackson, Mississippi, gathered on June 6 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Program.
The daylong event — organized by Brown’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity — included a colloquium luncheon with speaker panels, a series of performances by the Tougaloo College Chorale and an evening gala. Panelists and speakers focused on topics of diversity in higher education and asserted the partnership’s importance, especially in maintaining a healthy democracy.
Guest speakers included U.S. Representative Bennie G. Thompson, who graduated from Tougaloo College in 1968, and actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who attended both Tougaloo College and Brown University.
Formed in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement, the partnership program allows students and faculty at both institutions to engage in “academic and cultural exchanges,” according to the program’s website.
The program offers programs such as semester-long exchange, the Early Identification Program for the Alpert Medical School, the Partnership in Public Health program, the Civil Rights Intensive Experience and opportunities for community engagement through Brown’s Swearer Center for Public Service.
Vice President of Institutional Equity and Diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler said at the event that over 600 students have participated in the partnership program and 60 students have graduated from the exchange program.
“There is no other set of institutions in this country who have had a long relationship like Brown and Tougaloo,” Carey-Butler told The Herald. She emphasized that the partnership has “fostered learning and enriched both campuses.”
In his speaker remarks, Thompson reflected on the impact that both Tougaloo and Brown had on his life. He noted that the partnership, while preserving democracy, allowed students attending historically black colleges and white students to learn together during a time of segregation.
“It was something that made the difference,” Thompson said. “It’s been part of Bennie Thompson’s growth.”
During the colloquium luncheon’s presidential panel, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and Tougaloo President Emerita Beverly Wade Hogan addressed issues of diversity in higher education and the importance of continuing the “mutually beneficial” partnership. The discussion was moderated by Brown’s first HBCU Presidential Fellow Elfred Anthony Pinkard.
“Our institutions have common values: service, justice, leadership, openness and perspective,” Paxson said. “Those qualities are needed for strong democracies.”
Paxson and Hogan highlighted the continued importance of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education that provide more accessibility to learning opportunities. Paxson referred to these commitments as “unassailable,” referencing Brown’s recent decision to reinstate standardized testing admissions requirements. Recent research has shown standardized testing scores to be a better predictor than high school grades of collegiate success at elite universities, The Herald previously reported.
Standardized testing “gives us really valuable information about students that, if used correctly, can actually enhance diversity,” Paxson said during the panel.
Hogan — who served as the first female president of Tougaloo College — noted the crucial role of higher education institutions in exposing students to new ideas and broadening their perspectives. “Partnerships like this are so crucial today, because this is what is going to drive change in America,” Hogan said.
Brown Professor of Africana Studies and History Françoise Hamlin said at the luncheon that she has been taking students to Tougaloo during Brown’s spring break since 2009. The trips are often “more transformative than going abroad” and allow participants to engage in “experiential learning,” she said.
“For Brown students coming to Tougaloo, they really get to reassess their own privilege, academically and institutionally,” Hamlin said. She added that many students come away from the trip eager to continue their studies of civil rights history and to pursue careers in public service.
The luncheon also featured Dr. Tricia Rose, Brown Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, and Brown and Tougaloo alumni Angel S. Byrd and Oscar Groomes.
Tougaloo graduate and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Social Justice Daphne Chamberlain, Tougaloo College Archives and Special Collections Archivist Tony Bounds and Jeffrey Hines ’83 MD’86 were also present.
Ellis-Taylor, the evening gala’s emcee, spoke about how the partnership influenced her professional career.
Inspired by her professors at both Brown and Tougaloo — including Professor James O. Barnhill, who founded Brown’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and taught classes at Tougaloo — Ellis-Taylor decided to participate in the exchange program and eventually transfer to Brown.
“Barnhill saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Ellis-Taylor said.
The gala also included remarks by Tougaloo’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement Delores Bolden Stamps and Brown’s Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, along with a tribute to the late Dr. Galen Henderson. Henderson, a graduate of Tougaloo College and the Warren Alpert Medical School, became the first African American neurointensivist in the U.S.
“We’re so grateful to this partnership because it brought Galen Henderson to the Brown community,” Jain said.
The Brown-Tougaloo Partnership also offers a series of opportunities through the Swearer Center — including the Bonner Community Fellowship and iProv Fellowship — where students from both Tougaloo and Brown have the chance to intern with Providence-based organizations.
Joshua Rodriguez, assistant director of co-curricular learning at the Swearer Center, leads a trip for Brown students to visit Tougaloo College and surrounding historical areas in Mississippi.
Rodriguez said the trip deepened students’ understanding of community engagement by learning about civil rights history and activism. He noted that students learn how people create change through grassroots organizing and nonviolent protest.
“I’ve had students say that they have left feeling inspired after learning more about the partnership and the area of Mississippi,” Rodriguez said in an interview with The Herald. “It informs their community-engaged work … it’s extremely amazing to see.”
Julie Hajducky ’26, current Bonner Community Fellow, will be participating in the semester exchange program next semester. According to her, the program reflects the “dedication to social justice and institutional equity” that she has pursued in her studies at Brown.
“The Tougaloo Semester Exchange program provides a unique opportunity to center my interests in teaching, education policy and anthropological research within a community-based framework,” Hajducky wrote in an email to The Herald. “I am eager to learn about how issues of school funding, culturally responsible pedagogy and trauma-informed education manifest within Jackson, Mississippi.”
According to Jai-Me Potter-Rutledge, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Brown’s School of Public Health, learning from both alumni and administrative perspectives at the event deepened her appreciation of the partnership’s impact.
“My role as an administrator is really to serve our students,” Potter-Rutledge told The Herald. “Hearing about their experiences … has really allowed me to be grateful to be part of their journey.”
Potter-Rutledge oversees the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership at the School of Public Health and has hope for future initiatives of the partnership. “It’s been 60 years … to have 60 more years is really going to take a lot of transformation,” she said. “I’m excited about the possibilities.”
Sophia Wotman is a senior staff writer covering activism. She is a junior from Long Island, New York concentrating in Political Science with a focus on women’s rights. She is a jazz trumpet player, and often performs on campus and around Providence.
