Over the past half-decade, celebrities and dignitaries have embraced and engaged HBCU culture, and Coco Gauff is a perfect example. Recently, Gauff donated $150,000 to the UNCF in support of scholarships for tennis athletes who attend HBCUs. This isn’t Gauff’s first donation to an HBCU. In 2024, North Carolina Central received a $38,000 grant from the US Tennis Association to refurbish its tennis courts. The grant was created in honor of Gauff winning the U.S. Open.
In a recent press conference at the Australian Open, she spoke about her HBCU support and even said that she would’ve loved to have attended an HBCU.
“It's super important to me. I think if I didn't play tennis, I would have loved to attend an HBCU. I have family members on both sides, both my grandmothers went to HBCUs, uncle and aunt went to HBCU, and growing up just attending, going to HBCU Classic games and things like that. I think, for me, it was just important to support that cause, especially in tennis. I feel like HBCU tennis a lot of times doesn't get the funding that they need. So for me, I would just always try to uplift, like I said in the previous question, marginalized communities and, you know, put things, support where I can. Yeah, I hope it goes to students who really need it, and — well, it will go to students who need it. Yeah, I'm happy that I was able to do this for the second year in a row.”
Gauff’s comments echo the sentiments of many current and former athletes, who say they would’ve loved to have the black college experience. Angel Reese made a similar comment after LSU’s win over Coppin State in Baltimore in 2023.
“I mean, honestly, I would have loved to go to HBCU. Having the resources and opportunities they don't, they're not the same, of course. But one day, being able to give back to a community like this, and being able to, you know, we came here and we had to pay them to play us. So being able to do that, of course, I remember my experience playing against Poly at Morgan was just like this. And being able to have the whole city coming out and so many people coming out tonight and supporting us has just been amazing for me.”
Every time that an athlete says that they would've attended an HBCU and they didn't, HBCU alumni have the penchant to get really upset at that athlete, and Coco Gauff was no exception. She received some pushback amid applause for her philanthropy. But many felt that her desire to attend an HBCU rang hollow because they believed she should live it rather than just talk about it. Some believe that Gauff should enroll at an HBCU, as she is in the age range to attend an HBCU as a traditional student.
But my conjecture is that there shouldn't be scorn or backlash to Gauff's comments in the slightest. Sure, she could easily enroll at an HBCU, but she's currently pursuing a professional tennis career. That might not be where her life is right now. But she spoke about HBCUs and how she likely would've attended one without qualifiers. It was a nod to the significance of HBCUs and HBCU alumni in her life and the desire to embark on that educational journey herself. That's how we should want celebrities and athletes to speak about HBCUs.
But the slight backlash to Gauff's comments did make me think about Angel Reese's 2023 comments after playing Coppin. While I am a fan of Angel Reese and I love what she's doing with her professional basketball career, I believe that her comments struck a different tone than Gauff's. Gauff's comments were positive and aspirational; Reese's were positive, but there was an added qualifier that many people add when they speak about HBCUs, which can often be destructive.
“I mean, honestly, I would have loved to go to HBCU. Having the resources and opportunities they don't, they're not the same, of course.”
While Reese has reverence for the culture of HBCUs and for how black colleges are key institutions in the black community, she was quick to note the “resource” and “opportunity” gaps that prevented her from seriously considering them. That was the qualifier. Unlike Gauff's comments, hers sounded like, “I love HBCUs, but it's not good enough for me.”
And that's clearly not what Reese was trying to do when she made her comments back then. We can reasonably infer that she intended to uplift HBCUs when she said she would've loved to indulge in the cultural experience. But she perpetuated the notion of a huge resource gap between HBCUs and other NCAA institutions. Is the gulf between the athletic resources Maryland and LSU have, as opposed to HBCUs, wide? Sure. But often, we take the realistic fact that HBCUs are underfunded and under-resourced and use it to push a harmful narrative that this makes black colleges incapable.
There are 100+ HBCUs in the nation. Out of that 100, 53 compete in the NCAA, and 21 compete at the Division I level. To paint with a broad brush across all HBCUs and say that the plurality of these institutions wouldn't be able to sustain and develop a player like Angel Reese is not only harmful, but also false. Which, again, is the difference between Gauff's comments and Reese's comments. And Reese isn't the only celebrity or athlete who's inadvertently done this, but is a perfect example of it.
There are players who are playing well and competing with the best in the nation at HBCUs, especially in women's basketball. They then leave HBCUs and become stars at schools with “more resources.” In that case, are the “resources” really the problem? Is the extra five coaches or trainers hired really the gulf between good and great? Is that really the reason to not consider an HBCU?
There's certainly room for improvement at HBCUs, and black colleges aren't above criticism. But HBCUs are not the only NCAA institutions that need infrastructure improvements. If that were the case, many of the companies hired to build and improve infrastructure would go out of business. There are other FCS programs in football, basketball, track, and baseball that need that level of investment as well. And those non-HBCU programs aren't competing with LSU or Georgia. But they aren't seen as inferior or less than; HBCUs are.
And this, again, is the difference. Some HBCU alumni want Gauff to put her money where her mouth is and not just donate but attend. That's just not where her life is right now, though. But she spoke about HBCUs with grace and reverence and always supports them financially when she can. But the difference between Gauff's comments and those of some other athletes, like Reese, is that she gave space to celebrate the brilliance of the HBCU experience. Meanwhile, other athletes revere the culture but downplay attending because of an overstated resource disparity. And that's the problem.
Let's hope that more celebrities and athletes both speak about and donate towards HBCUs and black college initiatives like Coco Gauff. She's displaying the true definition of allyship.
