Smith College Celebrates 2026 Cromwell Day

This year’s Cromwell Day theme, “Building Community Through Solidarity,” was celebrated across campus in songs, speeches, small-group discussions, and collective reflections about diversity and inclusion.

“I love this year’s theme, and it is very timely,” said Smith President Sarah Willie-LeBreton in her remarks opening the day’s plenary in John M. Greene Hall. “To build solidarity, you don’t necessarily have to agree with everyone in your community.”  Solidarity, she noted, “means acknowledging, celebrating, and working together across difference.” 

Established in 1989 in response to student organizing, Cromwell Day honors the legacy of Smith’s first African American graduate, Otelia Cromwell, class of 1900, and her niece, Adelaide Cromwell ’40, Smith’s first African American faculty member. Each year, a committee of students, faculty, and staff plans the day’s events in collaboration with Smith’s Office for Equity and Inclusion.

This year’s activities included student, staff, and faculty-led workshops on a range of topics that included voting rights, how to navigate conversations about difficult issues, and what it means to be a student leader at Smith.

Among the day’s cultural highlights:

• Performances of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Stand Up” by the student vocal group Blackappella
• Cromwell Day Radio on WOZQ, featuring music from across the African diaspora
• The traditional reading of Nikky Finney’s poem about Otelia Cromwell, “Maven,” which was read at the plenary by Mia Owusu-Antwi ’27
• A full-house performance of M’le bato: Are You My People?—an original play by The Performance Project about two African men who develop a friendship while learning about each other’s lives

Cromwell Day speaker Alaina Roberts, a scholar of Black and Native American history, shared her research on the largely untold stories of Black people—among them are her own relatives, who were enslaved by the Chickasaw Nation in what is now Oklahoma.

Roberts described the public history project she launched to “support the teaching of this history and [tribal] citizenship for Black Chickasaws.” Despite the project’s challenges, she said, “I’m grateful there are people who are willing to take that journey with me. It’s rewarding to know I can be part of that change.”

Aspects of Smith’s history were also explored during the day’s discussions and reflections. 

Anna H. Davis—Otelia Cromwell’s first cousin once removed—gave a talk in Neilson Library’s Special Collections about her family’s legacy and her memories of Otelia Cromwell’s resilience in the face of discrimination. 

Students pored over baby books, old photographs, and faded letters as they crowded around a display of items from the Cromwell family papers in the library’s archives. There was also a companion display organized by Jasmine Bhakta ’27 about Otelia and Adelaide Cromwell and the anti-racist organizing that led to Cromwell Day at Smith.

Changes made in the planning and promotion of this year’s Cromwell Day were aimed at expanding student involvement and clarifying the day’s purpose. Students were co-hosts of the plenary session and played a larger role in the speaker-selection process.

Bhakta, who was a member of this year’s planning committee, said she hopes “people come away knowing that the goals and the mission of Cromwell Day are an ongoing project at Smith—that it’s not one and done, but something they can contribute to as well.”

Owusu-Antwi, the plenary poetry reader, echoed those sentiments.

“I appreciate that students are more a part of this day,” she said. “My favorite part is getting to see students give workshops and interact with each other. It feels hopeful. It feels like a celebration.”

(Attended Cromwell Day activities? Share your feedback.)