By: Erin Flood (’19), Staff Writer
“The homecoming thing was for people coming back, and at the time there just wasn’t many Black people coming back.” This is how Roy Flood, Class of 1987, described his homecoming experiences as an undergraduate. For current Black undergraduates, we think of homecoming as not just a Carolina football game, but also the Black Student Movement’s Powder Puff football game, The Black Alumni Dinner, Yard Fest, and plenty of parties. However, for Black students in the 1980s, this wasn’t the case. Back then, it consisted of going to the football game, a parade, and possibly a party thrown by Black Greeks in the Great Hall for $1.00, or $1.50 (if they wanted to make it “pricey”). However, according to Flood and Anthony Simmons, both members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., similar parties were thrown every weekend. Simmons says, “The football game wasn’t really special, and nothing was really ‘planned’ for homecoming.” He adds on by saying that homecoming, which many current Black undergraduates look forward to, “was really just a game.”
From the perspective of a current undergraduate, it seems shocking that there wasn’t much of a homecoming experience for Black students. However, the 80s and 90s marked a large increase in Black students at Carolina. Black alumni then were miniscule in number compared to now. Because the Black community was (and still is) so small, the focus was more on being a part of the overall Carolina homecoming experience than having a “Black Homecoming” per se. Flood reflects on how the Black homecoming experience has changed for the better. He says:
“During Homecoming there’s a wide waft of classes, people from every era of Carolina, and each decade is well represented. The General Alumni Association and Black Alumni alone have done a great job with social hours, golf tournaments, and you get to see people you haven’t seen in 15 to 20 years.”
Kenny Flowers, Class of 1985 and also a brother of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., shares, “There‘s been a huge effort to engage the Black alumni with the General Alumni Association.” The lack of a homecoming experience in the 1980s has led many Black alumni to understand the importance in creating a “Black Homecoming.” Flowers says, “We had a very close knit community when I was in college and people wanted to keep a sense of connectivity.”
Though homecoming may not have been much of an experience for Black students in the 80s, it has become a meaningful one for them as alumni. Simmons reflects on Homecoming, saying, “That’s what I go back for, the people.” Flood shares the same sentiments. “I get to be with friends and acquaintances who were a part of my happy years, which at the time I didn’t realize they were my happy years, but they were.” Along with that, Flowers says his favorite part of homecoming now is, “just seeing people I went to Carolina with and there’s an understanding of what Carolina meant to us, we see we love Carolina and the community we’re apart of.”
Many Black alumni don’t necessarily look back on their college years and remember “that one Homecoming weekend” in the way that current undergraduates might in the future, but they do look back on their post-college years and remember “that one Homecoming weekend.” Homecoming now has a greater significance to the them, current students, and Black UNC as a whole.
