For decades, the CSU Black Law Students Association (BLSA) has been one of the strongest organizations at CSU Law. On March 23, 2024, the group celebrated its successes at the annual BLSA Banquet.
The BLSA Banquet is one of the most impressive and well-attended events put on by any CSU|Law student organization. The Banquet raises thousands of dollars for an annual scholarship for Cleveland-area students. It also brings together CSU Law students, faculty, alumni, and the broader Cleveland legal community, providing networking opportunities and building a sense of comradery, particularly among Black lawyers and law students. The 2024 BLSA Banquet, held at the CSU Glasscock Ballroom, was no different—the room was full of prominent lawyers, elected officials, and judges (including Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart).
The Banquet program opened with a list of the group’s accomplishments. While the Banquet is the largest event that BLSA puts on, it is far from the only one. Among others, the group has held study tables, social events, service events, movie nights, and writing support sessions. In February, BLSA sponsored “A Long Talk About The Uncomfortable Subject,” an event focused on combatting casual racism. BLSA also puts on the cherished annual Review Sessions for 1L and bar-tested courses, which have long been lifelines for students preparing for final exams.
The event also recognized CSU Law BLSA’s remarkably successful Mock Trial and Moot Court teams. The Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Team competed at the National BLSA Convention last year, and Isura Adedokun and Meagan Holloway-Ragland of the Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Team went to nationals this year.
The BLSA Banquet then recognized BLSA’s officers, without whom this impressive list of accomplishments would not be possible: President Aireus Johnson, Vice President Isura Adedokun, Corresponding Secretary Toni Kolawole, Recording Secretary Reece Barnett, Historian Selah Ingram, and Parliamentarian Ellenia Matthews.
Next, the program recognized two leaders who exemplify Black achievement in the law: keynote speaker Dolores Garcia, and honoree Judge Una H.R. Keenon.
Because Judge Keenon could not attend in person, Judge Patricia Blackmon accepted her award on her behalf. Judge Blackmon gave a moving address about Judge Keenon’s many accomplishments, including many firsts (among which is forming Johnson, Keenon & Blackmon, the first Black-woman-run law firm in Ohio and one of the first in the country), and concluded by thanking BLSA for the vital role the group plays in the Black legal community.
Garcia was introduced by her father, former Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, who outlined her many accomplishments (including becoming a partner at Ulmer & Berne while raising nine children). Dolores Garcia then discussed many of the difficulties of being a woman of color in the legal field, from being mistaken for a defendant at the courthouse to being told that she only got into Harvard Law School because she is half-Black, half-Latina. However, she emphasized the need for lawyers of color to cultivate a sense of self-confidence independent of the opinions of one’s white colleagues, to have pride in one’s achievements and to avoid the trap of self-doubt. She closed by reminding Black law students to remember their “why,” noting how important it is for them to represent their community in boardrooms, courtrooms, and political offices.
This was an essential part of the program, and underscores one of the most important roles of BLSA: to encourage Black achievement and overcome the severe lack of Black representation in the legal field. A recent study by the ABA found that the percentage of Black lawyers has actually decreased in the last ten years, from 4.7% to 4.5%—an abysmal percentage, given that the overall US population is over 13% Black. This lack of diversity in the legal field has many causes, from the growing cost of a legal education, to the exclusive, cliquish nature of the legal community, to systemic biases in admissions practices like the LSAT. Homogeneity is also self-perpetuating; it is often quite difficult and alienating to be one of few Black students at a mostly-white law school, which contributes to Black students facing higher attrition rates than white students.
BLSA is critical to fighting against these trends and making CSU Law a welcoming space for Black students. The group actively reaches out to new students, making them feel welcome, inviting them to make friends at BLSA-sponsored social events, and directly supporting them with study tables and writing sessions. BLSA also encourages group participation, cycling officer positions annually and holding frequent general body meetings, thereby giving rank and file members a sense of ownership in the group. BLSA connects Black students to job opportunities, regularly sharing job openings and networking opportunities with members. By sponsoring an annual scholarship, BLSA also reaches beyond the law school itself, expanding opportunities for students before they go to college.
The work of expanding Black legal representation is far from over. CSU Law is still a disproportionately white school, and the pressure of tuition costs continues to systematically exclude students of color. However, BLSA has done its part to close the gap for Black students at CSU Law.
BLSA ended the Banquet program by returning its focus to the group itself. It handed out Outstanding Member awards to 3L Danny Antwi and 2L Isura Adedokun, and the Outstanding Alumni award to Jewel Heath. It then recognized the newly-elected slate of officers for the 2024–25 school year, including President Ray Singletary, Vice President Betty Miller, and Parliamentarian Justin Saxton. With the program complete, attendees returned to chatting, dancing, and enjoying a night of celebration.
Like any student organization, BLSA sometimes falls short of its ideals. Members disagree, often vehemently, about how the group is run. But this disagreement shows how much members care. Many student organizations wish that their members would care enough to show up to meetings and speak out. For any of the organization’s occasional shortcomings, BLSA members share a commitment to continuing BLSA's legacy.
“The banquet is important,” President-Elect Ray Singletary told me, “because it allows us to not only celebrate who we are and what we have done, but also what we can be. BLSA can become a place of solace and reminds us that we are not alone in the struggle that is Law School. It can become a place of service to remind us that we can still do good in our community. It can become a place of strength to remind us that together we can do more than the sum of our parts. I say what BLSA ‘can be’ because we haven’t tapped into our full potential yet. So, I plan to create a foundation of trust, togetherness, and integrity that our members can be inspired by.”
ABA survey finds 1.3M lawyers in the U.S., ABA (June, 2022), https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2022/06/aba-lawyers-survey/.
Marisa Manzi and Nina Totenberg, ‘Already Behind’: Diversifying the Legal Profession Starts Before the LSAT, NPR (December, 2020), https://www.npr.org/2020/12/22/944434661/already-behind-diversifying-the-legal-profession-starts-before-the-lsat.
Kylie Thomas, ABA Data Reveals Minority Students are Disproportionately Represented in Attrition Figures, AccessLex (September, 2018), https://www.accesslex.org/xblog/aba-data-reveals-minority-students-are-disproportionately-represented-in-attrition-figures.
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