Guide to the Brown-Tougaloo Exchange records, 1961-1989

(bulk 1963-1969)

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2023

Collection Overview

Title:	Brown-Tougaloo Exchange records
Date range:	1961-1989, (1963-1969)
Creator:	Brown University. Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Program
Extent:	16 Linear Feet 33 letter-size document cases
Abstract:	The Brown-Tougaloo Exchange records contain correspondence, reports, financial data, grant proposals, teaching materials, tape recordings and press clippings produced by or about Tougaloo College and its exchange program with Brown University. The collection also includes financial and documentary material about the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1965, especially its Title III, Institutional Aid.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	OF.1ZU.2

Scope & content

The Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Records are organized into four series: Overview, Administration, Students and Curricula, and Finances and Development.

The first series, Overview, includes general information about Tougaloo College in the form of official catalogs and brochures as well as a Self Study undertaken by the college in 1967-1968. The history and administration of the Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Program is represented by the directors' reports, promotional literature and Harold Pfautz's History (1978-80). The series also contains a collection of both Tougaloo and Brown student publications and numerous newspaper and magazine clippings about the exchange program and black education in general. There is also a small collection of photographs.

The second series, Administration, includes most of the correspondence of program directors Harold Pfautz (1964-1966), William Benford (1966-1967) and Charles Baldwin (1967-1987), along with their reports to the Brown-Tougaloo Executive Committee, as well as records of the faculty, staff and tutors from both colleges who participated in the exchange. There are also related correspondence files for the presidents and upper administration of both colleges, including Tougaloo's Board of Trustees and various Brown-Tougaloo liaison committees.

Most prominent in the third series, Students and Curricula, are the papers and recordings produced by the controversial Brown-Tougaloo English Language Project. Included are results of the initial Attitude Survey, Tougaloo student essays and recordings (reel-to-reel tapes, along with transcriptions), teaching and conference materials, and several copies of the Project's final report by director W. Nelson Francis. In addition to the Language Project, the series includes student rosters and records of the Pre-Freshman and Pre-Med Programs at Tougaloo and the Post-Baccalaureate Program for Tougaloo graduates at Brown. There are also planning documents for Tougaloo's Master Plan (often referred to as the Irwin-Miller-Sweeney Plan), which addressed both curricular and physical improvement. Some fundraising and publicity material for the Tougaloo Choir is also included.

The last series, Finances and Development, is a substantial collection of correspondence, grant materials, development literature and budgetary documents produced by the Brown and Tougaloo Development Offices and the Friends of Tougaloo. Included are grant applications to the Rockefeller and Huber Foundations as well as to the United Negro College Fund, the Fund for the Advancement of Education (Ford Foundation) and numerous others. A large portion of the series is occupied by materials (correspondence, legislation, applications) relating to Title III (Aid to Institutions) of the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1965. The Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Program was a model for Title III of the Act, which created a means to fund mentoring relationships between more established educational institutions and so-called "underdeveloped" schools.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Durgin, Lawrence L.
• Earle, Daniel
• Fain, Irving
• Heffner, Ray
• Hornig, Donald F., 1920-
• Keeney, Barnaby C. (Barnaby Conrad)
• Owens, George A.
• Pfautz, Harold
• Swearer, Howard R. (Howard Robert), 1932-1991
• Baldwin, Charles
• Beittel, A. Daniel (Adam Daniel)

Subject Organizations

• Tougaloo College
• Brown University-Tougaloo College Partnership
• Brown University
• Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Program

Subject Topics

• African American universities and colleges
• Student exchange programs
• Civil rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Education

Document Types

• Transcripts
• Speeches
• Reports
• Proposals
• Programs
• Press releases
• Photographs
• Organizational charts
• Minutes
• Agendas
• Annual reports
• Applications
• Audio tapes
• Budgets
• Clippings
• Correspondence
• financial statements
• memoranda

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in four series:

• 1. Overview and history
• 2. Administration
• 3. Students, curricula, activities
• 4. Finances and development

Historical note

The relationship between Tougaloo College (an historically African-American college called Tougaloo Southern Christian College from 1954 until 1962) in Jackson, Mississippi, and Brown University was initiated by two Tougaloo trustees with connections to Providence. Rev. Lawrence Durgin, minister of the Broadway Congregational Church in New York (and former minister of the Central Congregational Church in Providence) and Irving Fain, a Providence businessman with a strong social conscience, were members of the Tougaloo Board of Trustees when they appealed to Brown President Barnaby Keeney for assistance with Tougaloo's fundraising. With help from Brown's Director of Development, Daniel Earle, planning was begun in 1963 to address Tougaloo's financial deficit through stronger alumni and foundation relations.

This joint planning process began during the Civil Rights Movement—which was particularly active in the Jackson area—and it drew Brown into a greater than anticipated involvement with the only integrated college of the day in Mississippi. In addition to its financial problems Tougaloo College was facing social and political censure for its active resistance to segregation under the leadership of A. Daniel Beittel. The Jackson press had nicknamed it the "cancer college" because it admitted white students. In 1963 several Tougaloo students had been beaten for trying to sit at the lunch counter of a local Woolworth's. When an integrated group from the college attended an event on the University of Mississippi campus in 1965, "Ole Miss" students demonstrated. The State of Mississippi, moreover, was moving to revoke Tougaloo College's charter because, in the words of then-Lt. Governor Carroll Gartin, it was a haven for "queers, quacks, quirks, political agitators and possibly some communists" (Jackson Daily News, 14 Apr. 1964; Box 5, folder 6).

The idea of a deepening relationship between Tougaloo and Brown was further fueled in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy's charge to educators to commit themselves to cultivating opportunities for black students. A cooperative arrangement on the institutional level appeared to be the way to address both Tougaloo's financial straits and Kennedy's mandate. Brown Development Officer Paul Davis' brief, "An Overview: A Proposed Development Program for Tougaloo College" (Box 23, Folder 9), presented to the Development Committee of Tougaloo's Board of Trustees in December 1963, summarized the philosophical and practical basis for the relationship between the two colleges and became the blueprint for the program.

Changes ensued. Foundational funding on this scale demanded a reexamination of Tougaloo's mission, and one effect of this process was a name change from Tougaloo Southern Christian College to Tougaloo College. Tougaloo Southern Christian College had been founded (as Tougaloo University) in the 19th century by the American Missionary Association of the United Church of Christ, and although the A.M.A. continued to support the College into the 20th century its financial resources were limited. In order to broaden the college's development appeal, Tougaloo's Executive Board modified the official name by dropping "Southern Christian."

Another big change came with the retirement of Tougaloo President Beittel in 1964. According to Harold Pfautz, who had been named Director of the Exchange Program, the College was at a crossroad: "…[S]hould Tougaloo emphasize primarily its … image in the black community and encourage active involvement of its students in the Civil Rights movement or should it eschew such a major thrust and emphasize the development of a first-rate liberal arts and sciences curriculum and faculty with a view to maximizing the ability of Tougaloo graduates to take advantage of the increasing occupational opportunities as well as to compete successfully for entrance into professional and graduate schools?" ("Draft--History of the Brown-Tougaloo Cooperative Program" p. 20-21; Box 3, folders 1 and 2) Dr. Beittel was seen as a civil rights activist and, as such, a possible impediment to outside funding for institutional development, and his resignation was formally requested by the Tougaloo Board of Directors. Whether the Board acted at another's behest remains unconfirmed, but Brown President Barnaby Keeney, the Ford Foundation and Mississippi's State Sovereignty Commission have all been considered agents of this change.

Some press reports reflected the complex uneasiness that greeted the announcement of the exchange program. The New York Herald Tribune headline read: "Brown U. Adopts Southern Academic Waif" (18 May 1964) and proceeded to describe the relationship as "an evolutionary fulfillment for the college founded 200 years ago by John Nicholas Brown [sic] with money he and other contributors had earned—much of it from the slaves, sugar and rum 'Triangle Trade.'" Other news outlets maintained this demeaning slant by often referring to Tougaloo in their headlines not by name but as a "small" or "tiny Negro college" under the wing of its "Big Brother" Brown University.

A controversial facet of the Exchange Program was the Brown-Tougaloo Language Project (1965-1969) whose purpose was to "emphasize the positive factors of standard dialect acquisition and language enrichment" (Final report, p. 3; Box 19, folders 1 through 5). Developed by faculty at both colleges and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Project aimed to teach speakers of the local "nonstandard dialect" a second dialect that would serve to improve their professional and educational prospects. Again, the national press reflected a general ambivalence toward the effort through headlines such as the New York Herald Tribune's: "English as a Foreign Tongue in South" (5 Apr. 1965; Box 5, folder 6). The Project was hampered by administrative and evaluation difficulties and its instructional package was used by only one other school, Southern University. When W. Nelson Francis, Project Director and Brown professor of linguistics, wrote his final report to the Rockefeller Foundation in July 1970, the Project had effectively ended.

The Brown-Tougaloo Exchange was suspended from 1973 until 1980 and is currently known as the Brown University-Tougaloo College Partnership.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	The files in Box 33 are restricted education and personnel files. There are no restrictions on access for the remainder of the analog materials, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view audiovisual media in this collection. Audiovisual media in this collection have not been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual media is restricted.
Use of the materials:	Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Brown University Library. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Brown-Tougaloo Exchange Records, OF-1ZU-2, Brown University Library.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Acquisition information for these records is unavailable.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Deborah Peterson.
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-02-02.
Descriptive rules:	Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Additional Information

Inventory

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