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.
In her second interview recorded during the 2018 Black Alumni Reunion, Karen E. McLaurin, class of 1973, briefly recounts highlights of her time at Brown University. To begin, McLaurin mentions growing up in Roxbury and then Rockland, Massachusetts, attending public school through the seventh grade, and attending Notre Dame Academy. She notes her volunteerism with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Congress of Racial Equality CORE, and the Black Panther Party of Boston.
Ferelene "Nan" Bailey begins by discussing her childhood, the benefits of living overseas during her childhood, her experience applying to Brown University, and her expectations of her experience. She spends a significant amount of time discussing the various and bountiful activist groups she participated in, and more broadly, social turmoil during the seventies surrounding issues such as the Vietnam War and birth control.
This interview with Kim A.Taylor, class of 1977, was captured during the 2018 Black Alumni Reunion. Taylor begins with her childhood and upbringing within a musical/artist community of Harlem, and how that led to her decision to attend Brown University. This segment of the interview includes an interesting recollection of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr when Taylor was a child.
In this interview, Javette D. Pinkney begins by explaining the academic initiative and activist spirit that brought her to Brown. She fondly remembers a “feeling of community,” and campus dating, in spite of instances of racism. She describes her involvement in a number of campus activities and social groups and recalls spearheading the College Venture Program - a pilot program financed by the Braitmayer Foundation to help students who needed or wanted to drop out of college temporarily.
In this interview, captured during Brown University’s 2018 All-Class Black Alumni Reunion, Nicole “Nikki Strong” Harrison, class of 1992, details her activism within theatre and dance programs on campus.
In this interview, Justice Gaines, Brown University class of 2016, discusses her undergraduate career at Brown and highlights her activism on campus.
Gaines begins by sharing some background on her high school experiences participating in theatre of the oppressed and JROTC in New Jersey. She explains choosing to attend Brown on the recommendation of her mother and describes how she found her friend groups on campus. She mentions participating in Gravediggers Poetry Collective and the Third World Center, now the Brown Center for Students of Color.
In this interview recorded during the 2018 Black Alumni Reunion, Tanya Lumpkins, class of 1985, and her daughter, Sarah Marion, class of 2019, share their thoughts on a Brown University family legacy and current events as they compare their experiences on campus.
In Part 1 of this interview, Elizabeth Branch Jackson begins by talking about her high-achieving family. Educated at Howard Dental School, her father was one of only two Black dentists in Providence at that time. He was also active in the NAACP and a variety of community programs, pushing the same expectations he had for himself onto his daughter. Jackson discusses the inevitability of pursuing a Ph.D., her lack of choice in choosing Pembroke, and being a highly visible token among her classmates.
In this interview, Johanna Fernández highlights her undergraduate experience as an activist at Brown University. She spends the first fifty minutes discussing her parents’ backgrounds as immigrants from the Dominican Republic and the effect that had on her childhood growing up in the Bronx, New York.
