Brooke Alexis Thomas

Brooke Alexis Thomas received her Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and specializes in twentieth century African American History, focusing on Black women’s history, African American organizing, and African American formal politics. Her dissertation “To Capture a Vision Fair:” Black Sorority Women and the Shift From Respectability Politics to Public Policy, 1935-1975” explores the ways in which members of Black colligate sororities strategically pivoted their ideologies and programming, beginning in the 1930s, to build upon legacies of uplift and respectability and move beyond them to a combination that envisioned a greater partnership with the federal government to propel the long Black freedom struggle. This project explores the ways in which Black sorority women began to think more broadly about public policy and the ways the state could further support the needs of African Americans, particularly around issues of employment, economic justice, health, and full political inclusion and representation as a part of a persistent and consistent effort to shape United States politics and policies, make the state accountable to the needs of Black people, and expand the professional opportunities for a new cadre of Black women political leaders. Brooke received her BA in history from Spelman College and her MA in history from the University of South Alabama. Her work has been supported by The Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, and the Mellon Foundation.

Publications

Thomas, Brooke. “Mary McLeod Bethune Statue in the U.S. Capitol Is an Important Commemoration of Black
Women’s Political Activism in the Federal Government.” Mary McLeod Bethune Statue in the U.S. Capitol Is an
Important Commemoration of Black Women’s Political Activism in the Federal Government (blog), October 22, 2021.

Orozco Roberto, Carie Rael, and Brooke Thomas “‘We the People’: Student Activism at Rutgers and Livingston
College, 1960–1985,” in Scarlet and Black, Volume Three: Making Black Lives Matter at Rutgers, 1945–2020, ed.
Carey, Miya, Marisa J. Fuentes, and Deborah Gray White. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2021.

Rael, Carie and Brooke Thomas “Twenty-Twenty Vision: New Jersey and Rutgers on the Eve of Change,” in Scarlet
and Black, Volume Three: Making Black Lives Matter at Rutgers, 1945–2020, ed. Carey, Miya, Marisa J. Fuentes, and
Deborah Gray White. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2021.

Adams Beatrice, Roberto Orozco, and Brooke Thomas “A Second Founding: The Black and Puerto Rican Student
Revolution at Rutgers–Camden and Rutgers–Newark” in Scarlet and Black, Volume Three: Making Black Lives Matter
at Rutgers, 1945–2020, ed. Carey, Miya, Marisa J. Fuentes, and Deborah Gray White. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 2021.

Awards and Fellowships

Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship Rutgers Univ. School of Arts and Sciences, 2022-2023

Excellence Fellowship, Rutgers Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2017-2018, 2021-2022

Rutgers-Newark Teacher Scholar Teaching Assistantship Dept of History, Rutgers University-Newark, 2020-2021

Melton McLaurin Graduate Research Fellowship Department of History, University of South Alabama, 2015

Mahan-Brandon Research Fellowship Gender Studies Program, University of South Alabama, 2015

Melton McLaurin Graduate Research Fellowship Department of History, University of South Alabama, 2014

Graduate Teaching Assistantship Department of History, University of South Alabama, 2014–2016

Leadership Alliance Summer Early Research Identification Program The University of Chicago, Summer 2012

UNCF/Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Spelman College 2011- 2013

History Department Grant Award Department of History, Rutgers University, 2022

School of Graduate Studies Travel Grant School of Graduate Studies, Rutgers University, 2021

MMUF Travel and Research Grant The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, June 2021

Neal Ira Rosenthal History Travel Award, Department of History, Rutgers University, Fall 2019

Robert E. Brunhouse Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Department of History, Univ of South Alabama, 2016

E. Lewis B Curtis Award for Outstanding Scholarship University of South Alabama, 2015