BSU Builds on 58 Years of History and Community

Athena Dyer
Students applaud during a freestyle game at the Black Student Union’s weekly meeting at the Nyumburu Cultural Center on Sept. 15, 2026. (Zion Zackery/The Black Explosion).

The University of Maryland’s Black Student Union is focusing this school year on building community, leadership and culture while creating a more intentional space for Black students on campus.

That mission builds on more than five decades worth of history. According to UMD’s archives, BSU was founded in the fall of 1968 following the disbandment of the campus chapter of Congress of Racial Equality. The union, established during the height of the national Black Power Movement, has since solidified its role as UMD’s longest-running Black student-centered organization. 

Since its formation, BSU has centered its goals around political reform, Black unity and education. The organization has advocated for changes at the university regarding racial injustice, cultural awareness and the creation of spaces that support the Black community.

Today, BSU’s President Bryant Reed said the union is staying true to that tradition while becoming more intentional about how it caters to Black students. 

Reed, a junior information systems student, notes that while past programs have been successful in bringing students together, BSU is now searching for ways to build on its programming by making it more specific to the Black student experience.

“One of our personal goals is to have that target audience so that we know who we’re serving, why we’re serving them, and that we can be intentional about creating that space where people feel like they truly do belong beyond just color, but also culture,” Reed told The Black Explosion.

Reed said that BSU’s initiatives are designed to not only build community, but to also develop student leaders. Through Family Matters, the union’s annual Big-Little mentorship program, students can participate in mentorships while mentors themselves can develop their leadership skills. 

“Family Matters. It’s a mentorship, not only mentoring the people that are ‘littles,’ but also building those people that are mentors into leaders,” he said.

The organization’s pageant also gives members the opportunity to take on leadership roles as a part of the BSU Royal Court. Mr. and Ms.BSU help host events, promote campus leadership and lead community service efforts.

In addition, the union offers leadership opportunities through its Freshman Council, a subset of the executive board for first-year students. 

Beyond developing leaders within BSU, the organization is focusing on giving back to the broader community , with community service activities increasing once Mr. and Ms. BSU are crowned.

Last school year, BSU participated in community service efforts including a blanket drive for sickle cell awareness, a Christmas toy drive and a school supplies drive. As for this year, things are just getting started.

“At FreshCon, we were handing out goodie bags as well, and it’s not the typical… soup kitchen type community service,” Reed said.

For sophomore criminology and criminal justice Historian Kendall Whaley, BSU’s focus on community is also connected to the organization’s history. 

“Being on a PWI campus, I think it’s really important to preserve BSU’s history because we want to show that the Black people here do have a community,” she said.

For Reed, that sense of community is also tied to the impact BSU’s members have beyond the organization.

“As we grow as leaders internally, that also affects the people externally, where they can either be inspired by that or be served by the work that the people here at BSU are putting in,” he said.