Nearly 200 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members from both Brown and Tougaloo College gathered at Brown Nov. 7-8, 2014, for a weekend of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — On Nov. 7 and 8, 2014, nearly 200 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members from both Brown and Tougaloo College, including Presidents Christina Paxson and Beverly Wade Hogan, gathered on campus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership. Created in 1964, in response to the African American freedom movement in Mississippi, the program has fostered student and faculty exchanges between the two schools for the last five decades.

Friday's events began with two panel discussions with Brown faculty and civil rights activists who were members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. After the SNCC legacy panels, attendees gathered in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts for a celebration and gala, with entertainment by the Marian Anderson String Quartet and award-winning playwright, producer, and conceptual artist Ifa Bayeza.

Saturday began with an intergenerational student-alumni brunch forum, where attendees had an opportunity to share stories about the impact the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership had on them. Following the brunch was a service of thanksgiving in Manning Chapel. B. Anthony Bogues, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ), closed the weekend’s events by giving a talk near the newly installed Slavery Memorial on the Front Green and a reception at the CSSJ’s new home at 94 Waterman St.