Roland Laird, The Daily Voice
- Just as alumni encourage their universities to pump dollars into various programs and university departments, black alumni need to encourage them to funnel resources into the community. The support of black alumni of universities cuts to the core of what “BlackPower” can mean in the 21st century, for that sentiment means black people collectively can use the resources at their disposal to help other black people succeed — and this is applicable in a variety of walks of life.
When Brown University appointed Ruth Simmons as the first African American Ivy League University president in 2000, the university galvanized its alumni with the formation of the Inman Page Black Alumni Council. Four years later President Simmons spoke at the Schomburg Research Library of Black Culture in Harlem. From that gathering of 300 Black alumni, a New York Metro area chapter of IPC was formed, holding its first meeting at the offices of Black Enterprise Magazine.
During that meeting, potential objectives like student mentoring, student summer internships and alumni networking were discussed. While each one of those objectives were well-responded to, the item most alumni agreed on was that as black alumni we needed to support President Simmons. Feeling the camaraderie in the room, I added, “I think we also have a chance to be SNCC 2.0.” To my surprise, some of the younger alums asked, “what the heck is SNCC?” and some of the older Alums said, “What does Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown have to do with us?” Not wanting to disrupt the meeting by starting a debate, I let it go.
