Established in 1964, the partnership between Tougaloo and Brown University began as a student and faculty exchange program that aimed to enrich both campuses. Sixty years later, it has grown into a multifaceted relationship and a model for other schools. Among other initiatives, undergraduates from both schools spend time learning on the Brown and Tougaloo campuses, faculty build research collaborations, and Tougaloo graduates pursuing medical careers enroll at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School through an early-identification program.

Each fall, the Swearer Center invites applications for the all-expenses-paid trip. Affiliation with the center is not a requirement, and students from any academic discipline are encouraged to apply. While this year’s cohort ranges in concentrations from education and literary arts to public health and science, technology and society, each student demonstrated a deep desire to learn from and connect to the history of the Civil Rights Movement, said Joshua Rodriguez, associate director of co-curricular learning at the Swearer Center.

“The trip inspires students to think critically about history — history that is not too far behind our time — and how it impacted and continues to impact the world today,” said Rodriguez, who has coordinated the trips since they began in 2017. “A lot of our students walk away recognizing differences in how information is given to them based on how history’s stories are told.” 

Getting hands-on with history 

To investigate some of those differences, the cohort spent entire days at three different museums, starting with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. 

There, students explored several exhibitions — including “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” co-organized by Brown’s Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the museum’s Center for the Study of Global Slavery — and saw up close invaluable pieces of Black history, from Harriet Tubman’s personal hymn book to Nat Turner’s Bible. 

For sophomore Rita Beyene, a public health concentrator with an interest in reproductive health, a small exhibit on motherhood made a lasting impact.

“[The exhibit] talked about the fear, violence and cyclical nature of slavery that had to do with mothers and birth,” Beyene said. “In discussions of reproductive justice, conversations about the right to raise one’s child in a safe environment will take me back to that exhibit.”

At Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson — an interconnected building home to the Mississippi Museum of History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum — the students explored more intimate, local histories. Visitors sweep through 15,000 years of Mississippi’s pre-colonial, indigenous and settler past before transitioning to the state’s role as the epicenter of the national Civil Rights Movement, with an emphasis on highlighting the local voices and stories of those directly impacted. 

“Listening to small histories are important because they give us nuance about the events that have happened and allow us to make space for non-dominant voices in key conversations about history,” said sophomore Rachel Wilson, who is pursuing double concentrations in education and Africana studies.  

That was a sentiment shared by fellow sophomore Destiny Smith-Sarter, who said she reveled in the personal retellings and recollections presented in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. 

“There is something so encouraging in learning about the people who hosted fish fries or donated furniture to schools or opened their home to organizers,” Smith-Sarter said. “I love that we have been able to learn more about the real, everyday people.” 

On the final day of the trip, at Tougaloo College, history became even more tangible. 

Led by Tougaloo Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Social Justice Chris Gilmer, the cohort toured the school’s historic campus and participated in a workshop on the history of Woodworth Chapel — which over the years hosted many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, such as Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — and its significance as a place of worship for current students. 

The students had the chance to explore the college’s archives, nestled on the second floor of Tougaloo’s library. In addition to records of the institution’s founding, history and collections of personal papers of individuals, the archives also serve as a research and reference center for the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. And unlike the museums, where objects are preserved behind glass for viewing, the archives were open to up-close, hands-on exploration. 

“I don't think that going to museums alone would have been enough for this trip,” Rodriguez said. “Having this relationship with Tougaloo, where they welcome us with open arms to come to their campus and give us their time to share this information with us, is honestly so invaluable.” 

Students were encouraged to read issues of newspapers published by the Black Panther Party, hold the Tougaloo regalia that Fannie Lou Hamer wore when she received her honorary degree, handle artifacts uncovered on the college’s grounds related to its past as a plantation, and carefully sift through historic photos, notes and other documents. 

“Our group was surprised when Gilmer invited us to interact with the artifacts inside the archives,” Rodriguez said. “Touching things physically and directly engaging with them … added a special level of education for the students on this trip.”

Terry Rodgers, a sophomore at Tougaloo studying political science, met with students while they combed through the archives, sharing his experience with activism and civic engagement — a particularly resonant experience for the Brown cohort, who were inspired by Tougaloo and Brown’s enduring legacy of student activism. 

“It was just a beautiful way for our students to connect and see themselves, even in an institution that they're not attending,” Rodriguez said.  

López, the Brown sophomore considering concentrations in ethnic studies and international and public affairs, said the trip was “a striking and sobering, yet necessary” opportunity to learn more about the people, places and perspectives central to some of the most significant points in American history. 

“History is hard to confront, especially when that ‘history’ is not so distant, rippling into the present,” she said. “After this trip, I hope to continue to have many conversations with people about what this means.”