In 1968, guided by Charles Nichols, 65 of the 85 Black students enrolled at Brown and Pembroke marched down College Hill to the Congdon Street Baptist Church to protest the lack of support provided by the University. The students remained for three days, at which point the administration agreed to increase admit rates for Black students, hire more Black staff and faculty, increase financial support, and create an intellectual home for Black studies on campus.

Despite moving into a permanent home in Churchill House in 1971, the status of the program remained tenuous. 1975 saw a takeover of University Hall where students from a wide range of backgrounds pressed the University to make good on the promises of 1968. Campus activism continued to gain momentum through the 80’s, including an occupation of the John Carter Brown Library in 1985. The second half of the decade saw a renewed commitment by the University to turn its focus to diversity on campus. In 1986, tenured faculty were formally appointed to Afro-American Studies, and Rites and Reason Theatre was incorporated into the program.

The program continued as Afro-American Studies until 2001 when the University granted the program departmental status and renamed it Africana Studies to reflect its significant orientation toward the study of the African Diaspora in its broadest definition. The Department, now on more stable footing, was able to continue to support students through their education at Brown.

The 2000’s saw growth in faculty numbers and the continued productivity of Rites and Reason Theatre. In 2011, the graduate program was initiated, marking yet another pivotal point of growth in the life of the Department.  In 2020, Rites and Reason Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary, marking it as one of the longest operating standing Black theatres in America.

The building was built for, and used by the Rhode Island Women’s Club before Brown acquired it in 1972. At that time, the Afro-American Society, the Afro-American Studies Program, and the Graduate Minority Association moved into the building. Later that year, the Third World Center (renamed in 2014 to the Brown Center for Students of Color) opened in the basement of Churchill House before relocating to Partridge Hall in 1986. Currently, Churchill House, gut renovated and expanded in 2023, remains the home to the Department of Africana Studies/Rites and Reason Theatre. 

The newly renovated Churchill House is a light, bright, and community-oriented building that promises to propel the scholarship and creative work of the Department of Africana Studies and Rites and Reason Theatre to new heights. The building is now home to new indoor and outdoor spaces for interactive learning and community-building, a state-of-the-art black box theatre, and a fully accessible main entrance on The Walk, a series of linked green spaces that intersect the Brown campus. Churchill House has been updated, modernized, and expanded to make room for new faculty, give graduate students more space, and create new opportunities for Rites and Reason Theatre.