The National Black Law Students Association makes it a point to take a stand and advocate racial justice. They accept anyone who supports their mission to articulate, promote and discuss issues of concern for minority law students.
“The biggest organization at the law school, and there’s only you know a handful of black people,” said Brandon Thomas, BLSA Vice President, “We like to reach out to the community and mentor young African Americans and try to send them on a path towards law school because we believe having a diverse legal field is very important to the community as a whole.”
The one word they day describes their organization he most? Inclusion. Most importantly, meeting the needs of minorities and African American law students, in particular. But, it’s not about the color of your skin. Thomas and Tingan emphasize you can be black, white, or whatever race and still join BLSA. Their one goal? To make you feel at home.
“Make feel people feel comfortable from. Coming from backgrounds that might not be the typical majority. We try to make the minorities feels comfortable here,” says Thomas.
“Particularly for Black History Month or this organization specifically as an African American Centric Organization. We look to provide for the needs of those law students that are sometimes, not necessarily forgotten about, but are not necessarily emphasized on enough.
“You can go out into the community not only as a lawyer, but as an African American lawyer,” said Tingan.
This national organization was started 50 years ago and it was way to promote the needs and goals of black law students. Then in 1991, Paul Stafford brought BLSA to Texas Tech.
“So it was very helpful to have people the same ethnic background, racial background to kind of help guide me through the process. Because law school is a tough process to start for anybody and especially once you’re really the minority it’s really just an extra layer of obstacles to get over,” said Thomas.
And even when the obvious stresses of school, having a big team behind you makes it easier to get by.
“If you’re able to stand with me in solidarity, you don’t have to be black white or any other race to advocate for this cause. So I think that’s important and that’s a message we try to stress to our members. And I think it’s important to diversify everybody’s experience,” said Tingan.