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Tours

1. Race & Reconciliation Initiative Heritage Trail

   Discover the many shades of purple on TCU's campus.

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   1. Frog Fountain

      Frog Fountain and its lotus leaves symbolize education and knowledge. The Race & Reconciliation Initiative’s Heritage Trail begins here and highlights stories about the racial geography of TCU. The Race & Reconciliation Initiative is an academic initiative that examines and documents TCU’s past to pave a path to a more inclusive and equitable campus culture. 

   2. Native American Monument

      At TCU, we acknowledge the many benefits we have of being in this place, which we share with all living beings, human and non-human. It is an ancient space where others have lived before us. The monument, created jointly by TCU and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, reminds us of our benefits, responsibilities and relationships.  

      We reflect on its words: This ancient land, for all our relations.  

      TCU respectfully acknowledges all Native American peoples who have lived on this land since time immemorial, especially the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, upon whose historical homeland the university sits. 

   3. Early Founders: Clark Brothers Statue

      In 1873, brothers Addison and Randolph Clark founded AddRan Male and Female College in Thorp Spring, Texas. It was one of the first co-ed institutions west of the Mississippi and later became Texas Christian University. The Clark brothers wanted to create a college where both men and women could acquire a higher education and develop character.  

      As participants in the Confederate military, the Clark brothers left a complex legacy. In 2020, the Coalition for University Justice and Equity (CUJE) at TCU called for the removal of this statue, labeling it a Confederate monument. After careful research, the Race & Reconciliation Initiative recommended maintaining the statue, while telling a fuller story about the founders. The university acknowledges the Clark brothers’ participation in the Confederacy and continues to study the university’s relationship with slavery, racism and the Confederacy. 

   4. “150 Connections” Mural

      “150 Connections,” located just east of the Clark Brothers Statue, is a collaboration between ArtOrg student artists, supervised by Associate Professor of Art Adam Fung, and the Race & Reconciliation Initiative.

      In commemoration of TCU’s Sesquicentennial, RRI utilized its research on TCU’s history with slavery, the Confederacy and racism to generate a list of 150 faculty, staff, students and alumni who have broken barriers, demonstrated ethical leadership and shaped TCU to become a more diverse and inclusive campus. The individuals selected serve as past and present representatives who have meaningfully contributed towards a campus culture where everyone is respected and valued.

   5. Allene Park Jones ’63 (Annie Richardson Bass Building) 

      A founder in her own right, Allene Jones was one of TCU’s first Black graduates and the first Black faculty member. In 1962, Jones was one of three Black undergraduate students—all women—admitted to TCU. She graduated from the Harris College of Nursing in May 1963.  

      Jones, who died in 2015, remarked that during the time she helped integrate the TCU campus, she didn’t think of herself as making history: “I just wanted to go to school. I was too young and naive to understand the significance of what I was doing.”  

      Upon receiving her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from UCLA, Jones returned to Harris College in 1968, where she taught clinical and psychiatric nursing until retiring in 1988 and earning emeritus faculty status. 

   6. Mary Couts Burnett Library 

      The Mary Couts Burnett Library is a focal point of TCU. It serves as the repository of our racial and institutional history from documents and speeches that librarians have preserved through the years. Inside, the public may access transcripts and videos from the RRI Oral History Project, as well as “Civil Rights in Black and Brown,” a digital humanities repository examining civil rights in Texas, using the oral histories of African American, Latinx and white people who lived during this time.
      
      The library’s mission is “organizing and providing access to quality information resources that inspire curiosity, creativity and innovation throughout the TCU community, while offering exceptional services and surroundings that nurture our students.”

   7. Veterans Plaza

      Here, TCU remembers the sacrifice of Horned Frogs lost in service to their country.  

      Several decades before TCU officially desegregated the entire campus, a few Black students had partial access to a TCU education. The first evidence of any Black person taking classes at TCU occurred in 1942-43, during World War II. TCU obtained government contracts to provide background training for naval and marine officers and airplane pilots. While TCU administrators believed it was their patriotic duty to admit such students, only a few Black people who were in the military were allowed to enroll and did so in the Evening College only. President Sadler stated in later documents that the TCU Board of Trustees did not ask about the race of any people that the military sent to TCU because the two entities had a contract.  

   8. College of Education (Betsy and Steve Palko Hall)

      Inside the main lobby of Palko Hall, an excellent timeline of the College of Education’s history includes many references to the ways faculty and students worked for more people to access education at TCU before and during the Civil Rights era.  

      In 1955, TCU’s Evening College offered classes for Fort Worth ISD teachers seeking to further their education. As the campus remained segregated, College of Education faculty taught classes at nearby Gay Street Elementary. Some of the teachers seeking further education included Juanita Cash and Reva Bell, who eventually pursued master’s degrees at TCU and graduated in 1965. Juanita Cash is the mother of James I. Cash, Ph.D., TCU’s first Black student-athlete. Other Black students, like Lottie Hamilton and Bertice Bates, earned TCU master’s degrees in 1956, but their degrees were conferred in absentia, because Black graduates were not allowed to walk at the graduation ceremony.

   9. The Portrait Project (The Harrison)

      Located on the first floor of The Harrison, the Portrait Project is an initiative sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and President to diversify portraiture around campus and commemorate historically marginalized and underrepresented members of the TCU community. “Among the Firsts” honors some of TCU’s first Black graduates: Doris Ann McBride, Allene Park Jones and Patsy Brown. Other portraits include “Based on Quanah Parker” and “Based on Mrs. Jack Treetop-Standing Rock 1908,” two works by the contemporary Comanche/Kiowa artist J. NiCole Hatfield (Nahmi-A-Piah) that represent TCU’s relationship with Native American and indigenous peoples.  

      The project committee, which includes many stakeholders around campus, is working continuously to identify future honorees, which include Kate and Charley Thorp, a formerly enslaved couple linked to the university’s founders and initial board members.

   10. James Cash Statue (Parrish Statues)

       On November 11, 2022, James Cash ’69, Ph.D., became the first Black alumni to have a statue on TCU’s campus. A leader in business, education and sports, Cash was TCU’s first Black student-athlete and the first Black basketball player in the Southwest Conference. He later became the first Black tenured faculty member at Harvard Business School.  

       Cash is one of five players in program history with at least 1,000 points and 800 rebounds. His jersey is one of only four retired at TCU. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks issued a formal statement at the statue dedication, officially declaring Nov. 11 as Dr. James Cash Day.

   11. TCU Athletics Hall of Fame (Schollmaier Arena)

       One of the highest honors a Horned Frog student-athlete can receive is selection to the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame, which includes former TCU student-athletes who are all-Americans, national champions, world record holders or Olympians. Distinguished coaches and special contributors are also included. TCU student-athletes have played a significant role in expanding the ethnic and racial diversity of TCU’s student body. As more than just athletes, many of these Horned Frogs reflect TCU’s many shades of purple and have gone on to impact our community and beyond, such as TCU Athletics Hall of Fame inductees James Cash and Ronald Parker.

   12. “The Divine Nine” National Pan-Hellenic Council Greek Pillars (Greek Village)

       When TCU redesigned Greek Village in 2016, students petitioned to increase visibility of Black Greeks on campus. As a result, TCU became the first university in the country to create pillars to represent the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), popularly known as “the Divine Nine,” which includes historically African American Greek organizations. The pillars are in chronological order of each organization’s founding on campus, beginning with Alpha Phi Alpha (1971). Today, six of the nine NPHC organizations are on campus: Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta and Sigma Gamma Rho.  

   13. Intercultural Center (Brown-Lupton University Union)

       TCU’s Intercultural Center opened in 2021 as a diverse and inclusive space to welcome and encourage all students to be the most authentic versions of themselves. The center values intellectual and social inclusion, seeks to empower students through social justice and advocacy and supports many multicultural, religious and social justice student organizations. The Intercultural Center serves as TCU’s promise to acknowledge the university’s past injustices and ongoing dedication to educating our community to do better in the future.