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Interviews by Decade: 1960s

Interviews from the women who attended Pembroke College in 1960s include discussions of the changing social expectations of the times; the Civil Rights movement; institutional inequalities between men and women; social culture on campus; attitudes toward sex, birth control, and abortion; creation of the Pembroke Pandas women's ice hockey team in 1964; the effect of national student movements; and political action on campus. The women also share stories about their families, local communities, and their lives before and after college. 

Image: Black Student Walkout, 1968. In December 1968, women from Pembroke College led a walk-out in which 65 of the 85 African American students then enrolled at Brown University marched down College Hill to the Congdon Street Baptist Church, where they stayed for three days. For more about this event, see the videos from the 2009 alumni reunion forum "The 1968 Walkout: A Turning Point in Brown's History"  and the short documentary "1968 Walk Out." Image source: University Archives Photograph Collection.

50th Reunion, class of 1969

This interview with members of the Pembroke College class of 1969 documents the undergraduate experiences of Kathryn H. Au, Rita Ann Chao, Maria Garcia, Kathryn Troyer, and Lucy Jane Wollaeger, at their 50th reunion.

Ido Jamar, class of 1969

In this interview, Ido Jamar (formerly Judith Fitzhugh), class of 1969, details her involvement as the face and voice of the 1968 Student Walkout -  a civil rights protest against Brown University’s lack of commitment to students of color.

Rita Ann Chao, class of 1969

In this interview, Rita Ann Chao, class of 1969, discusses growing up in Vietnam, arriving in Maine, studying applied math at Brown University, and her career in software development, management consulting, and organization transformation. 

Susan Cowell, class of 1969

In this interview, Susan Cowell explains her reasons for choosing to attend Pembroke College, her expectations for campus culture, her roommate's struggles with class differences, and the social life of Pembroke. She also discusses her own her peers' efforts to protest the Girls School culture, including stealing the chimes, and a march to the Dean's house.

Wanni W. Anderson, class of 1962

In this interview, Wanni W. Anderson, class of 1962 MA, and Adjunct Professor Emerita of Anthropology, discusses her life and education in Thailand, her transition to American life, her graduate work, and the historical landscape of women’s work and roles in the academy.

Women of Brown United, classes of 1972-1973

In this interview recorded on the eve of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, eight Brown University alumnae discuss the factors that led them to found the women’s liberation student group, Women of Brown United (WBU) in 1970.  They detail campus life and group activism in the midst of the sexual revolution, ongoing Vietnam War and wider political and societal upheaval across the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Roswell Johnson, M.D., Faculty

In this interview, Roswell Johnson, MD, discusses his time at Brown University as the director of health services in the 1960s and the controversy surrounding his willingness to prescribe birth control to Pembroke students in 1965.

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