MLK wasn’t the only person with a dream. At least he shouldn’t
be the only one.
Black Thought has visions of “Nat Turner holding his master’s
head – like Yorick and Horatio in Hamlet – smacking it like a tennis racket, underhanded.” Others among us invent less-violent
scenarios, maybe just building something to leave as a legacy for our offspring,
maybe locking arms with our white cousins and singing Kumbaya.
Marcus Garvey fantasized about a back-to-Africa movement where we’d pack our shit and be out. Segregationists like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond didn’t actually want us ALL the way gone (too many missing service workers); they craved returning to their notion of good ol’ days, when more Black folks were forced to “stay in their place.”
There are 21 conferences in the National Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Only one is led by a Black woman
commissioner.
Effective July 1, that league will have a new name that
embraces its mission and membership: the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC),
with the tagline, “Where Winners Thrive.”
After serving for three years in an interim capacity, Kiki Baker Barnes was installed as permanent commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) in June 2022. She said her leadership team worked with Black-owned marketing firm Ten35 for two years before choosing the new name.
Another youth sports event, another brawl amongst adults.
At least shots weren’t fired, which isn’t always said when similar
scenes unfold around the country. Thankfully, it appears no one was
seriously hurt Sunday during an incident that went viral. But the fight between former NFL star
Cam Newton and a couple football coaches at a 7-on-7 tournament in Atlanta was nonetheless
disturbing, raising a series of questions.
Why were they beefing? Who got physical first? Where was security?
Howard
recently became the only HBCU among more than 100 schools with a collegiate program under U.S. Figure Skating, the national
governing body for the sport. The Bison made history Saturday when they
competed in the Blue Hen Ice Classic at the University of Delaware.
Princeton, North Carolina State, Maryland and South Florida were
among schools that participated in the event. “It was our inaugural competition
and all of our kids skated amazingly,” Howard skating coach Joel Savary told
theGrio. “It was just an absolutely wonderful event.”
Savary said the Bison took nine skaters and they demonstrated specific skills in team maneuvers. He said junior Maya James competed and placed fifth in a solo competition that featured 11 schools. “That was really great, especially coming in as a brand new school,” Savary said. “We are really proud of them because there were a lot of schools participating. It was a great starting point for Howard University.”
When
you’re a #GirlDad like me, you want daughters like Coco Gauff. Sure, she’s a world-class
athlete and champion tennis player, but that’s not the part I’m talking about.
We
want our girls and young women to grow adept at social self-defense, prepared
for the seemingly inevitable moments when they’re publicly disrespected in a majority
white space. Maybe it’s in a corporate office that has few colored faces. Maybe
it’s on campus at a predominately white institution.
Or maybe it’s in Dubai during a recorded match with a scene that goes viral.
Sometimes the old geezer sitting on his porch and hollering
about the young’uns has a point. Generations often throw shade on their descendants,
suggesting they lack this or have an excess of that. But in the case of Pops vs.
Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, the evidence is overwhelming:
Today’s players couldn’t care less about the exhibition that once
meant something to everyone.
“Back in my day” fans never saw an All-Star team surpass 200 points. They never saw the teams combine for 397 points. They never saw one team sink 42 three-pointers. You know another record set in the East’s 211-186 blowout against the West?
Players
from HBCUs have a long and storied history in the NBA, with luminaries like Willis
Reed (Grambling State), Earl Monroe (Winston-Salem State) and Sam Jones (North
Carolina Central), named to the league’s 75th anniversary team. Philadelphia forward
Robert Covington (Tennessee State) is the only current NBA player from an HBCU
and he wasn’t part of Sunday’s All-Star Game.
But
the on-court action in Indianapolis included a key figure from historically Black
colleges.
Derrick Collins (Xavier-Louisiana), in his 23rd season as an NBA referee, was part of the officiating crew as the East outscored the West, 211-186. Unlike Covington, Collins has company within his NBA ranks: Nine of 74 officials attended HBCUs, ranging in seniority from Tom Washington (Norfolk State), in his 33rd season, to Matt Myers (Hampton), in his sixth season.
My
daughters will testify that I don’t play regarding “Lift Every Voice and Sing,”
aka, “The Black National Anthem.”
They
were young schoolgirls when I began drilling them on the
lyrics over and over – ad nauseum by their
account – until they could sing the song from memory with nary a flub. Of course
they had to know all three verses. Whenever we’re somewhere where the audience
sings the BNA, I’m that person who keeps going awhile longer if we stop after
the first verse.
Stony the road we trod! Bitter the chast’ning rod! Felt in the days when hope unborn had died!
When Rajah Caruth says he needs a new ride, he sounds like many
HBCU students making their way through school. But unlike his peers at
Winston-Salem State, Caruth routinely tops 100 mph and makes news when he gets a replacement vehicle.
He was a rookie full-time racer in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series last year, but his team ceased operations after the season. Caruth’s prospects
for 2024 were unsure until last week, when Spire Motorsports picked him to
drive the No. 71 Chevrolet Silverado this season.
“It was pretty special because of all the uncertainty this winter and trying to figure out the best situation,” Caruth told theGrio. “I felt really thankful to have things get close and then come together pretty quickly. I have a lot of gratitude and I’m just ready for the season to get started.”
Players from HBCUs get a little extra shine when they reach
the Super Bowl, where legends like Jerry Rice, Doug Williams and L.C. Greenwood
put their names in the record book after collegiate exploits at Mississippi
Valley State, Grambling State and Arkansas Pine-Bluff.
This year’s big game features cornerback Joshua Williams (Fayetteville
State), playing in his second straight Super Bowl with Kansas City, and
defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (South Carolina State), also playing in his
second straight Super Bowl – with San Francisco this year and Philadelphia last
year.
Paul “Tank” Younger doesn’t live in Super Bowl lore, mainly because he retired in 1958, before the league’s inaugural lollapalooza in 1966. But his name rings as loudly as any Black player you ever heard, whether from an HBCU (like most did before the 1960s) or from the predominantly white institutions that continue to draw the most top-level talent.
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