ATHENS, Ohio — After Ohio University abruptly cancelled its triennial Black Alumni Reunion amid state and policy changes, community organizations banded together through the leadership of the Racial Equity Coalition of Appalachia to make the event happen anyway.
Branded Black Alumni Weekend and scheduled for April 10–12, the event is intended as a “weekend of networking, mentorship, and celebration” that will “honor the rich legacy of Black and Brown excellence at Ohio University,” according to the event website.
The weekend “gives us an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of hundreds and thousands of Black students and alumni who have come through OU,” said event organizer Brandi Baker, a two-time alumna and former OU employee who focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives through multiple roles at the university.
A full schedule of Black Alumni Weekend events can be found online.
The event will also “make sure that the students know that there’s still support in the community, and there’s still support through alumni, and we all still value and appreciate diversity, regardless of what’s going on with the governor’s decision for [Senate Bill 1] and the university’s decision to follow,” Baker said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed SB 1 into law on Friday, March 28, giving state universities 90 days to comply with changes that ban diversity and inclusion programs and practices, prevent faculty from striking, institute post-tenure reviews for faculty, require “intellectual diversity” in the classroom, and more.
OU has yet to announce major institutional changes, though it cancelled keystone events including Black Alumni Reunion and a Celebrate Women conference in advance of the bill’s passage, citing both SB 1 and federal guidance.
The last BAR, in 2022, was the largest ever, bringing over 2,000 alums back to Athens, according to a 2022 Ohio University web post.
It was “definitely shocking that the university made a decision to act or react before [SB 1] was even a law,” said Baker. “It’s disappointing to see the administration just bow [down] to this before there was even a legal mandate or precedent for it.”
Baker looks forward to connecting with other Black alumni amid the changes at OU, in Ohio, and across the country.
“I’m hoping to just see smiles and laughs and hugs and even tears, because this is a sad moment in history for our community and for our nation,” Baker said. “I’m excited to be in community with people … who want to continue to carry that out, regardless of what the administration says, or regardless of where OU has positioned themselves or where the federal government has positioned themselves.”
Reacting quickly
OU announced that it was cancelling Black Alumni Reunion a little over a month before the event was scheduled. Soon afterward, Baker organized a virtual town hall.
“We had over 100 alumni on the Zoom call who expressed different thoughts and feelings around wanting to continue with the weekend. They had different ideas. But of course, within a three-week time frame, we had to do what we thought was going to be feasible given the amount of time we had and the limited resources,” said Baker.
The community already had infrastructure in place to be able to quickly move forward, thanks to the existence of the Racial Equity Coalition of Appalachia and its relationships within the city.
Baker said she helped found the coalition several years ago, working with partners including the Athens County Foundation, the city of Athens, the Athens City School District and local businesses. The goal was “to really have conversations around how we build inclusive communities and look at inequities in the community, so that we can all live, work and thrive and have a great experience living in Appalachia,” Baker said.
The Athens County Foundation, part of the coalition, quickly directed an $8,000 grant to support the Black Alumni Weekend, once planning for the event got underway. The foundation also created the Racial Equity Coalition of Appalachia Fund so donors could easily offer direct support to the coalition and the event.
The grant — along with ACF’s other work through its Racial Equity Fund, Women’s Fund, and newly launched Pride Fund — reflect “the foundation’s commitment to ensuring that everybody in our community feels safe, supported and celebrated,” said Kerry Pigman, the foundation’s executive director.
“This feels like a moment when not all of our community partners can do as much as they want to, or maybe have historically been able to do,” Pigman said. “The foundation can, and that’s kind of the role of the community foundation, is to support our entire community. And so I think this reflects that commitment to community and to inclusion.”
Other community partners joined the effort, Baker said, including the Athens County Visitor’s Bureau, the City of Athens, the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center, the Tablertown People of Color Museum, and PassionWorks.
Extensive community support “allowed us to be able to pull this together in a short time frame,” Baker said.
One Uptown establishment hosting an event for Black Alumni Weekend is Tony’s, at 7 W. State St. Manager Chandra LaPorte said the bar is hosting a special event from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, April 11, that will feature a special drink menu, showcasing Hennessy and Don Julio.
Tony’s has “always been really supportive of all of our community,” LaPorte said. “We were just like, ‘Well, if the university is not going to do anything, we don’t need them to celebrate Black alumni, so we’re just doing it anyway.’ … We’ll celebrate all weekend.”
LaPorte organized the event with a friend and alum who owns Swimprinted, a custom screen printing business. The OU alum requested that we use only the business name due to safety concerns.
The alum also created merchandise for Black Alumni Weekend, including free stickers with intentional messaging to Black alumni. The stickers assert: “You belong here” and “You can’t cancel what you didn’t create.” The messaging refers to the history of the Black Alumni Reunion, which began as a gathering for Black alumni and current students.
Stickers will be available for free at various Uptown locations, including the Athena Cinema, Brenen’s, The Shack, and Tony’s. Merchandise is also available through Ohio is Home.
“It’s like the one time a year where you get to see a whole bunch of Black and minorities come back to town as a whole,” the alum said. “This is one of the few times you get to see everybody. It’s cool, because it gives the campus a different feel for a couple days.”
Now is the time
The owner of Swimprinted said this is the time for non-university affiliated organizations to show allyship to and solidarity with Black students and alumni, and to reach out to support paused events and resources.
Despite the rapid turnaround, Baker said some alumni cancelled reservations after OU’s announcement that the event was on hold. Still, Baker said about 100 people had registered as of Tuesday.
“A lot of people don’t associate Appalachia and people of color — they don’t see that as … the picture of what Appalachia looks like when people talk about it,” Baker said. “I think it’s also important for people to understand that living in rural areas is also inclusive of other people of color, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, international people. We all live and work in and are in community in this space. So that was something that I think is really important for this weekend, for people to see that.”
Less than 5% of students enrolled at the Athens campus in 2024 were African American, according to OU data.
Baker said many Black alumni formed connections through entities like the Multicultural Center — which will likely close following SB 1’s passage — and the African American Studies Department, whose faculty have expressed concern about the program’s future.
Those offices “were central hubs of support,” Baker said.
“This weekend gives us a chance … to reminisce on the good times, of what those programs and those resources and the people who served in those offices … all of those folks who were instrumental in thousands of students’ graduation and success at Ohio University,” Baker said.
The threat to those resources and offices will likely come up at a town hall on Sunday, Baker said. The forum will focus on how the community that came together for Black Alumni Weekend can “continue to support diversity initiatives with and through the Racial Equity Coalition, in partnership with the community, in partnership with the students, in partnership with alumni, to really offer that student support.”
“Community isn’t just isolated to the university,” Baker said.
Note: This story has been updated to include additional information on merchandise.
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