A collection of features and graduate profiles covering Harvard’s 375th Commencement.
Ruth J. Simmons received a message shortly after she published her memoir, “Up Home: One Girl’s Journey.” A cousin — from the white side of the family — wanted to reunite their racially divided lineage. When Simmons approached her siblings, they rejected the idea. But Simmons viewed it as an example of the evolution needed to heal the division in our country.
“So many people I know lived that anger, died with it, and passed it on to their children,” she said on Radcliffe Day, speaking of historic racial injustice. “I’m determined not to do that. Because what will we be as a country if we hold on to that? We need to move on.”
On Friday, Harvard Radcliffe Institute awarded the 2026 Radcliffe Medal to Simmons, an acknowledgement of her commitment to excellence and impact. As a three-time university president — Smith College in Massachusetts (1995-2001), Brown University in Rhode Island (2001-2012), and Prairie View A&M University in Texas (2017-2023) — Simmons has transformed innumerable lives and had a significant impact shaping generations of learners.
During Simmons’ time as president of Brown, where she led a first-of-its-kind reckoning with the institution’s historic ties to slavery — the students saluted her advocacy by dubbing her “Ruth the Truth.”
