Wisconsin alums use #BlackandHooded to recognize African-Americans earning advanced degrees

Using social media, two University of Wisconsin-Madison alums have created a movement among African-American students in higher education that has two goals: one academic, the other political.

Anthony Wright and Brian Allen, who were best friends as undergrads, launched the hashtag #BlackandHooded to show that black master's and doctoral students not only exist, but graduate. At the time, they were celebrating finishing their master's degrees from Indiana University and Columbia University, respectively.

The hashtag literally refers to university hooding ceremonies for graduate students, when a student's mortarboard is replaced with a hood to symbolize passage from student to "master."

The hashtag also indirectly alludes to Trayvon Martin, the black teenager wearing a hooded sweatshirt who was shot to death in a gated Florida community by a neighborhood watch volunteer. After Martin's death in 2012, much attention was placed on hoodies and whether they lead to confrontations.

"It's a double entendre: Blacks wearing hoods and being targeted by police, and black folks wearing hoods and being successful," said Allen. "A hood also is what distinguishes you from an undergrad."

When Allen and Wright invited others to join them in using the #BlackandHooded hashtag during commencement season last spring, hundreds did. And not just current graduates.

Black graduate students from years ago shared photos of themselves from their own graduation ceremonies, wearing their academic hoods.

So many other black graduate students embraced the hashtag and posted to social media photos of themselves in their academic regalia that Wright and Allen decided to set up a blackandhooded.com website. Through the website, they could keep the momentum going and start a scholarship fund to help inspire others.

The website posts many of those photos and connects prospective and current black graduate students with black professionals who've earned advanced degrees. Nearly 400 students and alumni from more than 50 universities are now linked through that network, according to Wright and Allen.

The scholarship fund already has awarded four $500 scholarships to graduate students at four schools: Indiana, Michigan, University of North Carolina and University of Virginia.

To fund future scholarships, Wright and Allen are selling #BlackandHooded apparel through the blackandhooded.com website. One T-shirt reads "BlackandHooded: est. 1847," a reference to the year the first African-American — David J. Peck — earned a doctor of medicine degree from an American medical college, Rush Medical College in Chicago.

Wright came up with the graduation hashtag idea while working as a residence hall supervisor in spring 2017 at Indiana University and completing his graduate coursework. A student on his staff told him that it was inspiring and meaningful for her supervisor to be an African-American earning a master's degree.

The hashtag already has been used more than 10,000 times across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this spring. UW-Madison's commencement is this weekend.

Allen earned his bachelor's degree in English linguistics and Spanish at UW-Madison in 2015. He's from Waukesha and is a graduate of Waukesha South High School. He is now a first-year doctoral student in the Higher and Postsecondary Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Wright earned his bachelor's in business administration-management human resources at UW-Madison, also in 2015. He grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Riverside University High School. After finishing his master's, he was hired as a career adviser at the UW-Madison School of Business.

The two actually met in high school when they were part of the same UW-Madison precollege enrichment opportunity program, called PEOPLE.  They received full tuition scholarships to UW-Madison.

Allen said he found the campus climate at UW-Madison "not conducive to students of color."

"Being on a campus with 46,000 students and less than 700 black students was a culture shock," Allen said.

In fall 2008, UW-Madison had 363 graduate/clinical doctorate students who identified as African-American. In fall 2017, there were 404.

The 363 students in 2008 made up 3.2% of all graduate/clinical doctorate students. In 2017, the 404 students were 3.5% of all graduate/clinical doctorate students. 

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There's work to be done to be a more welcoming campus for students of color and UW-Madison is doing something about that, according to Chancellor Rebecca Blank.

"This hashtag and the organization that Brian Allen and Anthony Wright have gone on to build is celebrating individual students' achievement, inspiring others to pursue advanced education by expanding their sense of possibility, and providing new images of successful graduates," Blank said.

Kyree Brooks is one of those successful grads.

He earned his bachelor's in kinesiology from UW-Whitewater, and is preparing to accept his master's degree in special education from UW-Madison. He doesn't know Allen or Wright, but wanted to use the #BlackandHooded hashtag to celebrate his accomplishment — not realizing it was already a popular movement.

Brooks has posted a picture of himself in his academic hood on Facebook, using #BlackandHooded.

"Males I grew up with had no intention of getting a master's degree," said Brooks, a graduate of Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. 

"It's important to see people like yourself and others in educational spaces. It's about planting the seed, believing you can be there, too."