The Black Laurentian Athlete Coalition (B.L.A.C.) is honoring former Black St. Lawrence University athletes in celebration of Black History Month. So far, the group has honored past athletes such as Tony Ross ‘75, George Hughes ‘80, and Nicole Williams ‘91.
First making their appearance in November, the new campus group was made in conjunction with the mission of the Black Laurentian Initiative (BLI). Their mission is to help create a campus and athletic department embodied with sharing shapes that are empowering and inclusive of all people.
Two of the founders, Kaleb Davis ‘22 and Sid Spencer ‘22, want to change the overall experience of Black athletes at SLU. “We wanted to create B.L.A.C to diversify our locker rooms and as well confront some issues we had in the athletic department, being that it is one-third of our campus population are athletes and less than five percent look like us was a problem,” says Davis. “The idea of this coalition would also provide a safety net for the very few Black athletes that are here since we don’t have the coaching staff or barely any teammates to go and talk if you feel mistreated or after a stressful day of practice,” continues Spencer.
The first Black athlete to graduate St. Lawrence was Jeffrey Worthington Campbell ‘33. Campbell was apart of the track and field team. “They paved the way for us to get to the point where we are now,” Davis continued. All of the athletes highlighted have been inducted into the St. Lawrence University Hall of Fall. “These are literally the same people who went to the same school I did, and created history in reality. It is important to see that this isn’t a new concept of being the only Black athletes at SLU…So many struggles that we have, they also had to overcome to have these athletic achievements, I thought that was powerful.”
The overall goal of the coalition is to increase the recruitment of Black athletes for years to come. When discussing the impacts of these posts Spencer said that, “at the end of the day, it makes me feel less alone. They’re highly decorated Black athletes, but they were more than just athletes. I am glad that we had the opportunity to create a coalition like this.”
The coalition plans to reach out to more athletes and highlight them for the duration of the month. “More importantly, for the ones that are still alive, we plan on reaching out to them at the end of the month to show that we recognize them and appreciate what they did for the school, because before I’ve never heard of their names, but they are very accomplished in what they did for SLU,” says Spencer.
The next Laurentian athlete to be honored will be past two times All American football player, Keith Henry ‘84. They also plan to make a podcast interviewing these athletes and discussing their careers and struggles at SLU. To keep up with these posts and B.L.A.C’s future projects, follow them on Instagram @slu_blac.