In this interview captured during the 2018 Black Alumni Reunion, Katani A. Eaton, class of 1985, defines her time at Brown University by highlighting her Christian community and her involvement in a 1985 student protest advocating for needs-blind admission.

Eaton begins by describing her early childhood education as a member of Massachusetts’ METCO program – a voluntary program intended to expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by enabling students in certain cities to attend public schools in other communities that have agreed to participate. She goes on to explain that against her guidance counselor’s advice, she applied to Brown and was accepted.  Eaton recalls being enthralled by the extracurricular activities available at Brown including the Third World Transition Program, basketball, theatre, and singing. She also briefly mentions some of the memorable courses she took in her first year.

Eaton details her journey as a new Christian on campus who is also a musician, as well as the stigmas that came along with those titles. She chronicles her decision to marry her husband less than a week after graduation and the pressure she felt to do powerful things with her Brown degree. She concludes her interview by clarifying her involvement in the 1985 student protest, explaining that she has not been recognized as a member of the protest which she was so passionate about because she was called out of the John Carter Brown Library to sing to the crowd. Throughout her interview, Eaton highlights race relations, particularly from her mother’s viewpoint, her education in Lexington, MA, and her time during and after Brown.