Smith celebrated the first Black alumna, Otelia Cromwell, with its annual Cromwell Day on Nov. 4. Following the theme of “Collective Imagining of Anti-Racist Democracies: Fighting for Racial Justice,” a part of Smith’s “Year on Democracies” event series, speaker LaTosha Brown, a noted voting rights activist, gave the keynote address. Other workshops took place combining art making, discussion and readings with the goal of promoting antiracism.
The keynote began at 1:30 pm with a welcome from President of the College, Kathleen McCartney, and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, Floyd Cheung. The Smiffenpoofs performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly referred to as the Black national anthem, and Sierra Fraser read “Maven” by Nikky Finney, a poem commissioned by Smith in honor of Cromwell. Cheung then introduced Brown as the keynote speaker.
Brown started by singing a medley of civil rights anthems, including “Oh, Freedom,” “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” and “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize.” “There’s something about the power of art and music that ushers in a space for us to stay in our humanity without judgement,” she explained. “There’s something about the melody, the rhythm, the opening of it that invites me to come in and be a part of it regardless of barriers of race and gender that other people place on me and that I sometimes place on myself.”
Brown then asked two questions, imploring listeners to “listen with your heart, not your head.” “What would this nation look like, what would America look like, without racism?” and “what would the nation look like if all human beings felt valued and respected?” She asked listeners to consider these questions because “you cannot create or bring anything into being that has not been envisioned.”
Brown called on listeners to find their humanity and focus on it while they try to bring about change. “I want you to reclaim your humanity,” she said. “That is the thing that allows us to transcend all the barriers that other people have placed on us, that we have placed on ourselves.”
“I want us all to be liberated,” Brown said. She offered her “Five V’s” for how people can accomplish that goal: Vision, Voice, Victory, Voting and Values. “The ultimate goal is liberation, and liberation doesn’t look like dominance,” she said. “Liberation looks like inclusivity, equity, freedom. If we’re really talking about liberation, we need to do the work to liberate ourselves from the processes that have given us a distorted view of what it looks like to be in power.”
“If we are not asking ourselves what would America look like without racism every single day we will not see it,” said Brown. “Everything starts with a vision.”
Brown ended her speech with a call to action, asking listeners to use what she said to radically reimagine a better America. She sang “This Little Light of Mine,” another song connected with the Civil Rights movement, to bring her speech full circle.
“Are you willing to work on creating that vision of a nation that is free from sexism and racism and homophobia and all those forms of oppression that keep us separated?” she asked. “How will you use this moment to lend your voice in a way that speaks life into others?”
“I found the keynote inspiring,” said Alex Beardsley ’25. “Brown was an excellent speaker, and made some great points. It was definitely valuable for a non-POC audience to hear and understand. Honestly, for everyone to hear. She talked a lot about humanity. That is what equality boils down to. We’re all people.”
Brown’s address was one of many events offered by the college to commemorate Cromwell Day. There were also film viewings, discussion panels and a hip hop dance class. They were in high demand, as many students reported not being able to secure a spot.
Evelyn Berry ’25 attended the private screening and panel discussion of “Where I Became,” a documentary about 14 South African women who left their homes to pursue an education at Smith College. “Getting to hear about how Smith changed their lives and identity was especially impactful as a first year from the United States. I think that it was valuable to a non-POC audience, especially since the majority of our campus is non-POC. I think that the goal of Cromwell Day is to try and provide support and recognition for those members of our community that are POC and are still unrepresented, but also to help those who are not POC hear about their experiences.”
The goal of Cromwell Day, Beardsley said, is “to educate and to remember the hardships and injustices marginalised people have faced, and continue to face, in our world today. To learn from the past, and to move forward in a better and more inclusive society.”
Cromwell Day is named for Otelia Cromwell, Ph.D., and her niece Adelaide Cromwell, Ph.D. She graduated in 1900 and taught for a number of years before resuming her education at Columbia and Yale. She was the first Black woman to receive a Yale doctorate. Adelaide Cromwell was the first African American professor hired at Smith. After her time at Smith, she went on to teach more than 30 years at Boston University.
Brown is an expert in Black voting rights and voter suppression, Black women’s empowerment and philanthropy. She co-founded Black Voters Matter. She is the 2020 Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, the 2020 Leader in Practice at Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, and a 2020–21 American Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard.
