In the late summer of 1968, Michael Sweeney '70 hitchhiked to Jackson, Miss., to begin a semester of study at Tougaloo College, a historically black college. As a junior, Sweeney sought an educational experience different from the one he had received up to that point at Brown. By the end of the semester, Sweeney would consider the exchange a catalytic event that reshaped his worldview.
"It was the first thing that slapped me awake about both what was happening in the United States and what was happening in the world," Sweeney said. "From the daily life at Tougaloo College, the whole world begins to look very different."
Four decades later, Brown students continue to make the trek down South. This year marks the 43rd year of Brown's relationship with Tougaloo, an affiliation that grew out of the civil rights movement.
The program began in 1964 as Brown assisted Tougaloo with fundraising strategies, but it quickly developed into a more official partnership, including exchanges for both students and faculty. Since the program's inception, more than 100 Brown students have studied at Tougaloo, and about 140 Tougaloo students have spent a semester at Brown.
Although no Brown students are attending Tougaloo this semester, Executive Associate Dean Perry Ashley, who coordinates the exchange, said he hopes to invigorate the program and increase its visibility on campus. Ashley said he visits Tougaloo twice a year - adding that it is not just the "great catfish" that draws him back.
"It's a fabulous environment, a loving and caring environment where students are made to feel like family," Ashley said. "Once students get a taste of it, they're hooked."
Ashley cited Tougaloo's small size as part of its appeal. It enrolls about 1,000 students, and most classes swell no larger than 25 - a fact that fosters close student-faculty relationships. Ashley also praised the Southern hospitality of Mississippi, a sentiment echoed by Shelley Lei '07, who spent last semester at Tougaloo.
"Everyone was so much friendlier there," Lei said. "People would stop and say 'hi,' and they made sure you were never hungry."
Despite this welcoming atmosphere, Lei, who is half black and half Chinese, said there were times she felt like an outsider.
"People were genuinely nice, but it would take more to reach out and make a genuine connection," she said. "I knew that I could never be one of them. They treated me as a foreigner, but as one who could be accepted."
For Sweeney, attending Tougaloo as a white student during the civil rights era reshaped his views on race and racism in the United States.
"The reaction I got from a lot of kids at Tougaloo was, 'What are you doing here, white boy?' You come here to see the natives in the zoo?'" Sweeney said. "I had to come to terms with why I was there and grow out of my paternalistic assumptions that white liberals were going to save the world."
The Brown-Tougaloo project has had to contend with these accusations of paternalism in the public arena as well. A 1964 New York Herald Tribune article ran the headline, "Brown U. Adopts Southern Academic Waif." In 1967 Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael declared that Tougaloo was no longer a black college but a "Brown baby."
But Ashley brushed aside these claims. He stressed the active involvement of both schools in the exchange and the benefits it bestows on each institution.
Ashley cited the Early Identification Program for prospective medical students, established in 1979, as one of the most important components of the Brown-Tougaloo exchange. The program accepts a handful of Tougaloo students, who spend one semester at Brown during their junior or senior year, guaranteeing them a place at the Brown Medical School as long as they maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
Wilbur Allen is a current Tougaloo junior and EIP participant spending this semester at Brown. He said his experience on College Hill has been positive but added that he has been struck by differences between the North and South.
"It's a lot more diverse here," Allen said. "I've made different friends from different types of cultures. I feel like I belong here, though. It's a very good experience, and a very good opportunity."
Marc Vogl '95, who spent the fall semester of his junior year at Tougaloo, also emphasized the unique opportunity provided by the exchange. Vogl said the opportunity to attend two very different colleges gave him new perspectives on what higher education can mean for students from other backgrounds. He mentioned that some of his peers brought their children to class, an experience Lei also recounted. Although Vogl said he had moments of loneliness - and even times when he missed the Sharpe Refectory - he stressed the value of immersing himself in a nearly foreign environment.
"You take a risk by doing the unfamiliar thing," Vogl said. "You learn to see that your conception of the world isn't the only one. That's so enriching and stimulating, and at Tougaloo, it's really fun."
