The groundbreaking Brown-Tougaloo Partnership began in 1964, amid the national struggle for justice and civil rights for Black Americans, as a student and faculty exchange program that aimed to enrich both campuses. More than 60 years later, it has grown into a multifaceted relationship and a model for other schools across the country.
Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity
Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Program
Undergraduates from both schools spend time learning on the Brown and Tougaloo campuses, faculty build research collaborations, Tougaloo graduates pursuing medical careers enroll at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School through an early-identification program, and more. Since the partnership’s inception, more than 600 students have participated in programs, projects and academic and cultural exchanges, and scores of students have graduated from the exchange.
In the year that Brown’s partnership with Tougaloo was formalized during the Civil Rights era, Tougaloo had become a known refuge and a central meeting point for movement organizers, and the Mississippi State Legislature introduced bills to revoke Tougaloo’s charter and prevent its graduates from becoming teachers in the state. A group of concerned Providence citizens with ties to Mississippi approached then-Brown President Barnaby Keeney and asked for help to support Tougaloo. Months later, the two institutions drew up an agreement that began with a student exchange program funded by the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.
Generations of Shared Impact
In the decades since the formal partnership began, Brown and Tougaloo have continued to evolve the longstanding collaboration and expand its impact. Today, Tougaloo graduates pursuing medical careers attend medical school at Brown through the Early Identification Program in Medicine, and master of public health students from Tougaloo and other HBCUs enroll in the Health Equity Scholars program at Brown’s School of Public Health. This is in addition to the undergraduates at Brown and Tougaloo who learn on the respective campuses and the faculty who build research collaborations.
Brown and Tougaloo’s shared values of service, equity, leadership and academic excellence have enabled the uncharted partnership to grow and thrive over six decades. More recently, the partnership is helping to shape new collaborations with HBCUs and build on Brown’s unique partnership with Tougaloo to further the University’s commitment to partnerships that advance educational equity.
Other Ivy League schools and highly selective institutions began announcing their own new and expanded partnerships with HBCUs in 2023, reflecting the success of Brown and Tougaloo’s long-standing partnership.