Silver
 

Institution: Auburn University

Title of entry: Black Alumni Weekend 2019

About this entry: The Auburn Alumni Association hosted its fifth annual Black Alumni Weekend September 27-29, 2019, welcoming 600 guests for the weekend. Black Alumni Weekend has continued to grow since the first event in 2015, having the highest attendance to date. This three-day celebration featured vibrant family-friendly social events, networking, and an awards ceremony. During this weekend we were able to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Integration of Athletics and Henry Harris the first Black athlete at Auburn University who came to the university to play basketball and James Owens who arrived later that year as the first Black football player at Auburn.

There were 430 attendees at the awards ceremony where we were able to honor 13 of our Black alumni with our Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award as well as our pioneers Henry Harris and James Owens. We also have over 600 attendees at our tailgate that was held prior to the Auburn vs. Mississippi State football game where and an alumnus was honored with the James Owens Courage Award.

This event was the largest Black Alumni Weekend to date and one that got a lot of our Black alumni back engaged with the university.