Athletics March for Black Voices

Photo courtesy to Student-Athletes

NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State University student-athletes are planning a march to advocate for ‘Black Voices’.

ISU Athletic Director, Larry Lyons is quoted saying, “All Redbird Lives Matter.”

Immediately after students and coaches spoke out against the statement on Twitter. Students and coaches expressed their frustration with the AD and showed their support for Black  Lives Matter.

Photo courtesy to Student-Athletes

Days later students shared a list of demands on social media to boycott the Athletic department.

Illinois State University then shared their plan for change. The plan included multiple support groups, educational programs the administration would have to complete and a therapist.

With the work of student-athletes, a plan emerging was a step in the right direction and the campus community is beginning to see power conceding to the hard work put in.

“I think that there are things that are being learned that I hope are being learned on both sides and in the community at large,” said PR officer for BLONO Democratic Socialists of America Louis Goseland. “For the athletes who took a stand and put demands out there with a plan of action, I think that list of changes that the department’s already willing to make is evidence that power concedes to nothing without a demand.”

A way student athletes plan to concede power is by hosting a march this Friday, Sept. 4, 2020 right outside the north entrance to Redbird Arena. Speakers begin at 6 p.m. and the march will follow. Masks and social distancing are required. The march is not being labeled as a protest.

“I think Lyons and people who are in his position of decision making and authority should recognize is that this has always been your option. The protest in the streets, the civil disobedience that’s been happening across the country is yielding some measure of changes and reforms, but those changes in reforms have been called for for decades,” said Goseland.