In 1970, TCU crowned its first Black Homecoming Queen. Jennifer Giddings Brooks ’71
(MS ’74), who was also the first Black Homecoming Queen in the Southwest Conference,
was recognized at this year’s homecoming game and by a portrait dedication in the
Dee J. Kelly Alumni & Visitors Center.
The recognition was featured in several local media outlets. Brooks told the Fort Worth Report that she never believed she’d win in the first place.
“The picture they had for the newspaper was me with my hand over my mouth,” she said.
The portrait of Brooks being added to the alumni center honors Brooks, but also accomplishes a goal of the university’s Race & Reconciliation Initiative to tell a more complete TCU story.
“When we talk about reconciliation and what does it mean to us, I think it’s about getting the full story correct,” Frederick W. Gooding Jr., chair of RRI and the Dr. Ronald E. Moore Honors Professor of Humanities, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Brooks said she is honored – once again – after all these years.
"I put together a scrapbook that I put together that moment," Brooks told NBC-5. "After this weekend, I thought maybe that I should pull it out again. It is no longer just a memory. It is a moment. There will be some things to add to it. It is exciting."
Watch for additional coverage coming in the monthly publication Fort Worth Black News and the student publication TCU 360.
Read more about TCU’s honoring of Brooks and TCU Homecoming 2021.