KINGSTON, R.I. – Jan. 15, 2025 – The University of Rhode Island will offer its annual class named for alumna Rose Butler Browne, beginning this year on Thursday, Jan. 23. The course celebrates the legacy of Browne, who saw education as key for students to move themselves forward. Browne received her bachelor’s degree from URI in 1921, the first Black woman to do so.

The Rose Butler Browne Peer Mentoring Program class (LDR 291) is taught by Melissa Camba-Kelsay and meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. this spring semester. Spots in the class are still available. Previously listed as HDF 291, the course is open to anyone, regardless of gender or ethnicity, and offers credit toward the University’s leadership studies minor. It explores a range of issues relevant to women of color, from community engagement to leadership and media. Melissa Camba-Kelsay, assistant director of URI’s Center for Student Leadership Development, teaches the course, in partnership with Ana Barraza, director of URI’s Women’s Center.

Students who have taken prior iterations of the course say the class helped them find identity, community, and validation. Some describe it as transformative.

“The class helped shape and influence my identity,” said Selena Evora ’18, now a community birthworker in Rhode Island. “Becoming a member of the RBB community gave me a sense of naming my lived experiences to the systemic oppressions we as women of color face. This foundational language has helped me navigate the world and pass along that same knowledge and advocacy for other women like me.”

Students in the class learn the keys to success for women of color from their readings, instructors, one another — and also from Browne’s inspirational example.

“The class is designed to look at the spectrum of identities we all have — and how the different pieces of our identity impact us,” Camba-Kelsay says.

Literature — one of Browne’s favorite subjects — provides the foundation of the class, which “is grounded in a historical perspective, and begins with what we can learn from our elders,” Camba-Kelsay says. The class explores contemporary challenges that women of color face as well as how issues from the past may continue to impact them. It also examines what leadership looks like for women of color in today’s world.

Students in the course will also work together on a Community Gathering in Browne’s name taking place on Feb. 25 and URI’s 2025 Women of Color Conference on March 29. Watch for details at the CSLD site or on Instagram at @uri_leadership / @uriwomenscenter.

Last year’s conference featured Melissa DuBose, who recently assumed her historic seat as Rhode Island’s first Black federal district court judge. The newly appointed U.S. District Court judge is the first woman of color and first LGBTQ+ person to be seated in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.

Building community and creating a place of validation are among the goals of the class, adds Camba-Kelsay.

“When I took RBB, my perspective as a woman of color changed,” said Kayla Berrios ’17, who has made her career in higher education since leaving URI. “I began to see myself in the class content, the instructors, and in my peers’ experiences. The things we shared and the discussions we had resonated with me and how I identify as a woman of color.”

“Students can expect to build community, expand their network, and dive deep into issues of social identity and its impact on how they lead on campus and in their communities,” Camba-Kelsay says.

Celebrating the legacy of Rose Butler Browne at URI, and beyond

Browne’s 1969 autobiography, Love My Children (available from the Carothers Library), details the inspiration she found from her maternal great-grandmother, termed the “High Priestess” of their family, who traced ancestry to Chief Powhatan’s confederacy in tidewater Virginia. Browne heard firsthand her grandparents’ stories of life under enslavement in the South and the challenges encountered and learned from her grandmother how to defend one’s rights. Browne inherited her grandmother’s pride and independent spirit, as well as a commitment to freedom in many forms and desire to achieve betterment for future generations.

For her, education was an integral part of that journey and URI an important spot on her learning journey. In her autobiography, Browne recalled her years in Kingston as a happy time, attending school while working as a housekeeper in Newport.

“My two years at University of Rhode Island were pure joy,” Browne later reflected.

Browne left Rhode Island to take her first teaching position in Virginia, launching a 47-year career teaching at Black colleges in the South. She received her doctorate in education at Harvard in 1939, the first Black woman to earn a doctoral degree there, and advocated for equal treatment of Black students and teachers in the South, often in dramatic fashion.

“I have never been afraid to speak out,” she once commented.

Browne died in 1986, recognized in her obituary as a pioneer in Black education by The New York Times.

‘“The opportunity for upward mobility is the single most essential factor in guaranteeing social justice,” Browne said.

LDR (HDF) 291, offered every spring semester, is open to students of all identities. Please contact Melissa Camba-Kelsay at mjcamba@uri.edu for information on enrollment.