Black at Samford Pushes for Changes in the University’s Culture, Treatment of Black Students

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Sydney Cromwell

Students at Samford University regularly talk about the “Samford bubble,” the idea that when they step onto campus, they leave the real world behind. Inside the bubble, there’s a sense they are more sheltered and there is more uniformity in the beliefs and backgrounds of students and faculty.

But not for students of color.

Many Black current and former Samford students are now sharing stories about how that bubble has concealed their experiences of racism, discrimination, isolation and pain.

The Black at Samford Instagram account was started June 19, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery after the Civil War, popularly known as Juneteenth. Since then, about 150 submitted stories from students, alumni, potential students and employees have been posted.

The stories run the gamut of racial experiences: exclusion from student groups’ events based on race; offensive stereotypes; assumptions that black students were accepted to Samford based on athletic rather than academic achievements; different treatment by white professors or coaches compared to their white peers; judgment for interracial dating; casual use of racial slurs by white students; and the unofficial racial division of the campus cafeteria.

In one of those posts, Veronica Anjelica Duarte-McCants, a 2015 graduate, said that part of the reason she chose Samford was because of its strong religious reputation.

“However, when I got to Samford it shook me to my core. It made my walk with Christ a continual struggle because I didn’t feel God on that campus. I interacted with closed minded, racist, and bigoted students, faculty, staff, and administrators at Samford and it made me feel like if you’re a Christian and you serve the same God I do, I don’t want any part of it,” she wrote.

“Being Black at Samford meant during an international Jan-term (short academic session between the fall and spring semesters) trip I was isolated and told I would live by myself in all of our locations since it was ‘just me,’” wrote Aneesa Anderson, a 2016 graduate.

Samford University President Andrew Westmoreland issued a statement addressed to Black members of the campus on June 22.

“The wounds, recent or decades old, remain excruciating. I am grateful to those of you who have shared your ideas and hopes for change,” his statement read. He outlined several changes, including establishment of a task force on racial justice, development of scholarships and a hiring of diversity liaisons.

But Black at Samford organizers have posted that the time for vague promises is past.

“Because we have been pushed to the side so many times and have been ‘task forced’ to death, our main issue is the fact that there were no measurable goals in this statement,” the group posted. “We have no way to keep Samford accountable to this statement.”

And the stories continue to roll in.

Jonathan Bailey, a 2014 graduate, said being Black at Samford meant “watching my friends who were athletes, most of whom were black, struggle to have extensions for their assignments even though they were on the road half the semester but have the same professors cancel classes, assignments, and tests to account for Step Sing (an annual student singing and dancing competition).”

Qiona Payton, a 2019 graduate, submitted a story about being injured as a track and field student-athlete, and she said she received worse treatment and rehab from coaches and athletic staff than white teammates with similar injuries. The lack of care led to additional injuries and loss of athletic scholarships, she said.

Her story read, in part: “What hurt the most was that when expressing my experiences and feelings to my team, coaches and athletic department staff over the years there, I was always seen as the stereotypical ‘black girl with an attitude’ for being upset about how I was treated, despite always following instructions and constantly supporting everyone. Black people, especially women, do not get taken care of enough when it comes to mental and physical pain, and I hope that in Samford’s future we can see more love and care for them.”

Yassar Ahman El-Amin, a 2020 graduate and football player, said coaches made jokes at his expense for being Muslim and didn’t accommodate his dietary restrictions.

“I didn’t eat after workouts because the caf only had pork items, and being Muslim this is something that’s not in our diets. I called my coach because I could not afford to get any food on my own, and I was told not to disturb them and if I was really hungry I would eat. On a road game they had order(ed) pork sandwiches knowing that I didn’t eat pork (and) told me to take the pork off and eat the bread,” he said.

El-Amin’s submission also said, “One of the coaches told a group of black players that he ‘owns them’ because he got them out of trouble.”

Saige Avis was on the cheerleading team for two years. “I was asked on multiple occasions to go to specific events solely because I was black and they ‘needed to look diverse,’” she wrote

Lauren Williams, who attended Samford for her freshman year, wrote to Black at Samford that she was surprised to find that she had received more in scholarship and financial aid opportunities than some of her Black friends.

 Samford University is nestled in an idyllic property in Homewood, but Black students now are saying they aren’t included in the same “bubble” of security and harmony. (Source: Samford University)

“Looking back, I truly believe that Samford wants to think that they are reaching out and making themselves available to underrepresented communities and neighborhoods but in order to really make a difference, you need to be just as willing to invest in them as they would any other predominantly white community.”

Showing Black children around the campus is all well and good, she wrote, but “what does this accomplish if the children don’t see many professors or students who (look) like them? The faculty that does look like them work in the food industry and custodial services on campus.”

Several students also shared that they had trouble knowing when and how to speak up in response to these experiences.

The Black at Samford account is run by a group of several dozen people with current or former Samford connections. Organizers have written that they intend to continue posting specific demands until they see concrete changes from the administration.