The dining room table often does double duty as a workspace. That’s the case for Stephen Cady, Ph.D., president of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. Only, the dining room table is not his, and it’s not in a dining room. It’s in the center of his office at Brite.
It was there when he began his tenure as president two years ago. It may be the most notable piece of furniture at Brite; everyone who takes a tour of the school stops by to see it.
“Every conversation that we have about who Brite is recognizes in some capacity the significance of this table,” Cady said. “It’s a daily reminder to me that the work of justice is never complete, and that we have a significant history of trying to lead the way in matters of justice.”
Brite was founded in 1873 as part of Texas Christian University. It became a separate institution in 1914, although it remained on TCU’s campus, and Brite students continued to have meals in TCU’s dining facilities.
In 1952, two years before Brown v. Board of Education, Brite announced it would admit Black students. The first three – James Lee Clairborne, Daniel Goodspeed, and Vada Phillips Felder – joined 87 white students that fall. Classes were one thing, but meals were another: Brite’s Black students were not welcome in the still-segregated TCU dining facilities.
Brite, a Disciples of Christ institution, responded by raising the funds to build its own dining space, open to all. Weatherly Hall opened the following year, and the table that now sits in Cady’s office is one of its original furnishings.
“The Disciples were founded on the notion that everyone deserves a place at the table. For us at Brite, that has a literal meaning, and a figurative one,” Cady said. “Every day, we’re still trying to make a place for all.”
That mission had ripple effects. Vada Phillips Felder, went on to a distinguished career in Christian education after graduation. She met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at a church conference and invited him to visit Fort Worth. He did, in 1959 – his only visit to the city. Felder arranged for him to meet with Brite faculty members before he delivered a lecture at a local theater – its first event where the audience was not segregated.
Brite committed in 2023 to fully cover tuition for every master’s student. It’s a challenge, but one Cady said they’re willing to pursue: “It’s another way of opening up God’s table. It’s bringing students who would never have been able to come to Brite.”
