Celebrating Diversity: Leonard Moore of Black Student Athlete Summit On How To Build Inclusive Communities
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
My role is to connect and motivate students. Whether they’re Black, brown, white–it doesn’t matter. It hasn’t impacted me at all, and if I were to say it impacted me, it would suggest that if these programs go away, then somehow I’m going backwards. When I started my career, there was no such thing as diversity, equity and inclusion. I was just a black professor who spent time mentoring students.
In a world where diversity is often acknowledged but not always celebrated, we are taking a step forward to highlight the importance of inclusivity in building strong, vibrant communities. This series aims to explore the various facets of diversity — be it racial, cultural, gender-based, or within the differently-abled community — and understand how embracing these differences strengthens our social fabric. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Leonard N. Moore.
Leonard N. Moore, Ph.D., is the founder of the Black Student-Athlete Summit, a four-day event that brings together more than 1,700 Black Student-Athletes, professionals, and influencers from the world of college sports. Since his days attending graduate school at Ohio State University Dr. Moore has been a mentor and a tireless advocate for Black Student-Athletes. The Black Student-Athlete Summit is a product of his passion for mentorship and experience navigating the student athlete world with his children. Professor Moore is currently the George Littlefield Professor of American History and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1993 from Jackson State University and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1998, despite graduating from high school with a 1.6 GPA. From 1998–2007 he was a professor at Louisiana State University, and since 2007 he has been at the University of Texas at Austin. Inside the classroom Dr. Moore teaches more than 1,000 undergraduate students in the fall semester in his two classes: History of The Black Power Movement and Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow, and he has taught more than 30,000 students in his career. Dr. Moore also directs summer programs in Beijing, Cape Town, and in Dubai. Since 2014 Dr. Moore has taken more than 600 African-American students abroad. As a scholar Professor Moore is the author of four books on black politics including: Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power; Black Rage in New Orleans; The Defeat of Black Power; and his latest book Teaching Black History to White People.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about celebrating diversity, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I’ve been a professor for 27 years, teaching African American history, and teaching a class at a law school. I always loved black history. If you look at my high school transcript, I finished with a 1.6 GPA, and the only courses I did well in were history and African-American literature. I attended Jackson State as an undergrad, got a PhD at Ohio State in 1998, and have been a professor ever since. It’s my love. It’s what I do, and it’s what I think God has called me to do in that role. We taught a lot of student-athletes. I tell people I would see a student-athlete on their high school recruiting trip to the campus, during their four years at the school, and then when they were no longer playing ball. So, the genesis for the summit came and I realized those students needed a lot of support to prepare for life after sports.
Can you share an interesting or hopeful story where spending time with someone who did not look like you or who was different from you taught you something that has been useful to you?
The majority of students I’ve taught black history to in Texas have been white. One of my favorite students was a young white kid from northeast Texas, which is very rural Texas. We became close. He took all my classes, and I remember he said, “Dr. Moore, my uncles wanted me to invite you to go hunting with us. I’m like, no, I’ll pass on that.” It was funny because here I am– a black man from Cleveland, Ohio and he was a white kid from northeast Texas. We had a good relationship despite looking different and coming from two completely different backgrounds.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Innovation, creativity and honesty. When I took over a lot of my administrative roles, I built things from the ground up. A part of me says that I want to build from where I see there’s a need, and I don’t ask permission, I just do it. I believe good leaders need to be innovative and creative. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box to create new strategies. Lastly, honesty will take you much further as you pursue innovation and creativity. Be honest with yourself and others.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a personal story that highlights the impact of diversity and inclusivity in your life or career?
Diversity and inclusion hasn’t impacted my life one bit. I was born an African American male from Cleveland. I remind people that the terms diversity and inclusion have only been around for 15 to 20 years. So, for me, it has never impacted me as a professor.
My role is to connect and motivate students. Whether they’re Black, brown, white–it doesn’t matter. It hasn’t impacted me at all, and if I were to say it impacted me, it would suggest that if these programs go away, then somehow I’m going backwards. When I started my career, there was no such thing as diversity, equity and inclusion. I was just a black professor who spent time mentoring students.
How do you approach and manage the challenges that arise when working towards creating more inclusive communities?
For me, if you come to my classroom, I’ll have 500 students in a black history class. 250 will be white; 100 will be Asian; 100 will be Black; and 100 will be Latino. When students know you love them, and that you care about them, the color doesn’t matter at all. One of my favorite students said, “Dr. Moore, I disagree with everything you say, but I’ll take every class that you teach because you motivate me.” And that’s what it’s about.
What innovative strategies or initiatives have you implemented or observed that effectively promote the importance of diversity and inclusivity?
About 10 years ago at the University of Texas, I realized that Black students weren’t studying abroad at all, and so, we launched three programs. The first program was in China; then we launched a program in South Africa; and now we have a program in Dubai. We’ve taken over 600 African American students abroad over the last 10 years to these three countries. Starting those programs was about how do I give these Black kids a leg up? How do I make it a little bit more marketable? And it’s worked.
In your opinion, what are the key elements that make a community truly inclusive, and how can these be fostered on a larger scale?
If you walk in with the intent to make this an inclusive community, then you’ve lost already because you’ll start counting people and you’ll start doing things just to make it look “inclusive.” I think inclusivity has to be organic. Some people will come and some will not, but it has to be organic. I don’t think it could be something manufactured.
How do you measure the impact and success of diversity and inclusion efforts, and what changes have you seen as a result of these initiatives?
It depends on what the context is. In a higher ed setting, we look at graduation rates; we look at retention rates; and we look at what percentage of students are getting jobs. That’s how we looked at our success. We didn’t look at our success by counting the number of people in a room and see how many people were different. We just looked at the end result. The college students need to leave here with a degree and a job, and so that was the metric we used.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
My next initiative will be creating a platform to help more Black boys get to college. I know the numbers are bad. I think of all Black college students in the country, only 30% are black boys or black men. I’m going to spend the next 15 years of my life on that, and so I’m just getting ready. When you have such an imbalance in college, it creates all kinds of issues. Marriage, ability, all of that including the family structure is going to get jacked up. So, that’s how I want to spend my energy.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Instagram: @bsasummit
Website: https://bsasummit.org/
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Celebrating Diversity: Leonard Moore of Black Student Athlete Summit On How To Build Inclusive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.