Tougaloo College's legacy of civil rights activism is in the national spotlight. Smithsonian Magazine published a feature story on March 26, 2026, highlighting the Tougaloo Nine — the nine Tougaloo College students who staged a sit-in at the segregated Jackson Municipal Library on March 27, 1961.

The article chronicles how Joseph Jackson Jr., Geraldine Edwards, James Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding Jr., Janice Jackson, and Alfred Cook walked into the whites-only library knowing they would be arrested — and how their act of courage helped the NAACP push for the desegregation of public spaces in Mississippi's capital.

Read the full feature at Smithsonian Magazine.