Davidson Scholar-Athletes Leading Efforts to Fight Social Injustice

ChiChi Odo on football field

Scholar-athlete ChiChi Odo organized a community Zoom meeting in the days following the death of George Floyd.

As the nation grapples with the issues of race and equality, a number of Davidson Wildcats have been in the news for their leadership.

Yesterday, senior forward Kellan Grady launched College Athletes for Respect and Equality (CARE), a program designed to help raise awareness of injustice and inequality among fellow college athletes. Grady partnered with Stacy Gallin, founding director of the Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics and the Holocaust to launch CARE. The two met on the men’s basketball team’s 2018 trip to Auschwitz that Gallin organized.

“I’d like this to be about the collective efforts of college athletes, to have a platform given our level of notoriety,” Grady told the Charlotte Observer. “Not just as athletes, but as people of a younger generation who are going to be part of change for the next 50 years.”

Meanwhile, junior defensive end ChiChi Odo, was featured in the Observer for organizing a Zoom meeting for athletes, athletic staff and other members of the Davidson community in the days following the death of George Floyd. More than 200 people participated in the call.

“I saw how big a social issue this had become and the climate within the country,” Odo said in the story. “I wanted the end goal of the discussion to be about a positive step for change and how we could play a part in that.”

Published

  • June 24, 2020

Author

Photography

  • Tim Cowie