As a senior at Brown, Malcolm Burnley ’12 discovered a story in the Brown Daily Herald about a 1961 visit Malcolm X made to campus in order to debate the author of a previous Brown Daily Herald story, Katharine Pierce ’62. In her article, Ms. Pierce argued that racial integration was necessary while Malcolm X argued in favor of racial separation instead of segregation.
On Wednesday, February 25, 2015, CBS aired a news story with reporter Jim Axelrod about Mr. Burnley’s discovery. As it turns out, not only did he uncover the student newspaper article and information about Malcolm X’s visit to campus, he also found Ms. Pierce, who was able to share her memories of Malcolm X and the debate.