‘Built by Alumni, Sustained by Community, Driven by Purpose’

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A 50th anniversary gala in Washington, DC, will celebrate CBAA's strength, history, and impact while planning for its future

By Joe Wilensky

When Renee Alexander ’74 matriculated on the Hill in fall 1970, she was one of about 275 Black students in her freshman cohort. Hers was a significantly more diverse entering class—one that was also the first to have applied and been admitted following the 1969 Willard Straight Hall occupation and the ongoing racial strife on campus.

The tension at the time “was impossible to ignore, and it impacted everything that we did, everywhere that we went,” she recalls. “But the flip side is that I also had this welcoming, warm, insulated Black community that came together because we felt safe together. My community was my life here.”

And as she and her peers began to graduate, she says, it was clear they had to do something to extend the vibrant network they’d created.

“We knew that many of these people would be in our lives for the rest of our lives,” she says. “So how would we build an organization that preserves this community?”

We knew that many of these people would be in our lives for the rest of our lives. So how would we build an organization that preserves this community?

Renee Alexander ’74

The Cornell Black Alumni Association (CBAA) sprang from that effort: Alexander and several others—Sandra “Sandi” Black ’73; Conway Boyce ’75, BA ’76; Carlton Holmes ’72; and Irene Smalls ’71—founded it in 1976.

The organization “has served as a national home for Black Cornellians—built by alumni, sustained by community, and driven by purpose,” says Shannon Cohall ’14, LLM ’25, the group’s current president.

This spring, CBAA—which now has more than 1,000 dues-paying members, with about 12,000 more subscribing to its newsletter and listservs—is celebrating its first half century with a gala in Washington, DC, April 24–26.

CBAA at 50: A Golden Celebration Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Securing the Future will include receptions, panel discussions, storytelling, and collecting memories for an oral history project.

CBAA at 50: A Golden Celebration Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Securing the Future will include receptions, panel discussions, storytelling, and collecting memories for an oral history project.

(The last day to register and purchase tickets is April 15.)

Three alumni—University benefactor and trustee emeritus Thomas Jones ’69, MRP ’72; prominent legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw ’81; and progressive activist Svante Myrick ’09, former mayor of Ithaca—are being honored at the gala.

The event will also serve as the public launch of the CBAA Legacy Fund, a campaign with a $1.5 million goal to support and grow the group’s scholarships, mentorship, engagement, cultural preservation, and more.

As Cohall observes, CBAA’s existence speaks to the fact that while Black Cornellians “are definitely part of our university, at times there have been some distinctions in our experience.”

CBAA, she says, “can fill that gap for a lot of folks.”

The group’s founding mission—to connect, mobilize, and uplift Black alumni across generations—can be traced to the alum whom many call the visionary behind CBAA: Irene Smalls, who founded Cornell’s Wari Co-op as a welcoming residential space for women of color.

“When I left Cornell, the women and men I had come to know and love were scattered across the country,” she recalls.

“We were apart, but that Cornell experience had forged a bond that distance could not destroy—and CBAA represents a continuation of our Black Cornell community.”

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Sandi Black, the group’s first president as well a co-founder, has seen CBAA grow and evolve over the decades—as new generations took the helm and online technology facilitated connections.

We were apart, but that Cornell experience had forged a bond that distance could not destroy.

Irene Smalls ’71

Reaching this half-century milestone, she says, “is a testament not only to CBAA’s longevity, but also its resilience, its adaptability, and the collective effort of everyone who has contributed their time, talent, and treasure to its success.”

Early on, CBAA’s major events were the gatherings it held on the Hill every two or three years in conjunction with Reunion Weekend.

The first, in 1977—organized by Sandi Black along with Helen Claxton ’74, Claudette Jones ’75, and Sheila Kennedy ’75, BS ’76—had several dozen attendees; the most recent, in 2024, drew 600.

CBAA now funds three scholarships managed by the University—over the course of nearly four decades, they’ve supported some 230 students—as well as several independent scholarships and member grants.

It also partners with the University and student organizations to support professional development and conferences, and to provide graduates with Kente stoles—colorful woven cloths symbolizing African cultural pride—to wear at Commencement.

Shortly after the pandemic hit in 2020, CBAA found new ways to strengthen its alumni connections through virtual conversations—as that year also saw Black Lives Matter protests and a renewed racial reckoning across the country.

“A lot of the things that took place at that time that were really rocking the Black community,” recalls John Rawlins III ’06, CBAA’s immediate past president. “We needed to create a space for alums to come together, for Cornellians to have conversations about what was going on.”

Shortly after the pandemic hit in 2020, CBAA found new ways to strengthen its alumni connections through virtual conversations—as that year also saw Black Lives Matter protests and a renewed racial reckoning across the country.

CBAA also has dozens of WhatsApp subgroups, organized by region and graduation decade.

And in recent years, the group has been hosting a large tailgate party at Homecoming—connecting with current students, so they’ll be familiar with the organization when they graduate.

“While it seems like that might be simply a social event,” Cohall says, “it’s actually creating community early on, giving folks an opportunity to get involved, meet alumni, and make connections that will last a lifetime.”

Looking at CBAA today, co-founder Carlton Holmes says he’s amazed at how much it has grown and evolved.

“It’s light years beyond anything I had dreamed of,” he says. “The people who have come after us have done such a marvelous job keeping the organization growing and expanding.”

Black calls the 50th anniversary a “Sankofa moment”—citing a Ghanian concept of a reflective pause, symbolized by a bird with its head turned backward.

“It represents the importance of learning from the past,” she says, “to build a positive, independent future.”

Top: CBAA members at Reunion 2024. (All images provided, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published April 6, 2026

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Do you have CBAA memories to share?

Comments

1. 

   Janis L McManus, Class of 1976

   6 Apr, 2026

   Attended some of earliest meetings in the summers on Cornell Campus
   I was at attending Teachers College, Columbia University.

   Reply
2. 

   Marlene Angel Harper, Class of 1974

   8 Apr, 2026

   Wow! this brings back memories…

   Reply

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