MONROE, La. (AP) - Jonathan Hodoh could no longer sit silent. The images coming out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, were too painful to ignore. At the urging of his younger Louisiana-Monroe teammates, who expressed their fears and anxieties to the senior wide receiver, he decided now was the time for action.
“When this latest situation happened with the police incident and social injustice, we just finally decided that we wanted to be heard,” Hodoh said. “I felt like if we used our voices and found a way to talk about these things we want to address, that was a way to include everyone in this.”
For Hodoh, the latest situation was the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year old Black man, by a white Kenosha Police officer on Aug. 23. The officer fired seven shots at Blake during an arrest. Four shots struck Blake after he opened the door of his SUV. Three of Blake’s children sat in the backseat.
Blake’s shooting is the latest incident of police violence since George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in Minneapolis Police custody on May 25.
Hodoh shared his concerns with ULM’s team captains - running back Josh Johnson, tight end Josh Pederson and cornerback Corey Straughter - and head football coach Matt Viator. After receiving Viator’s blessing, and the go-ahead from the athletic department, the Warhawks United for Social Justice forum was born.
On Wednesday (Sept. 9), ULM athletes and coaches spread around the Fant-Ewing Coliseum stands to hear from speakers Kenny Natt, a ULM L Club Hall of Famer, former Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo and Valerie Fields, ULM’s interim vice president of student affairs.
“It really brought to light how serious the whole thing is,” Pederson said. “Some of the stuff you hear people go through, you just sit back and the best thing you can do is help them. Our underlying goal is to communicate and start conversations.”
Viator and ULM athletic director Scott McDonald reached out to Mayo and Natt, who were teammates on coach Lenny Fant’s ULM basketball teams and at Bastrop High School.
“I want our student-athletes to get a full picture by hearing from two individuals that have been in their shoes,” McDonald said. “We went to dinner the other night and we talked about growing up with segregated schools. It’s hard for people to understand that. Until I was in the sixth grade, I attended a segregated school and they were in high school.”
Natt, who lives in Atlanta, commended McDonald and Viator’s desire to address social justice.
“Some of the things that are happening in our society today are a direct result of things that have been going on for quite some time,” said Natt, whose daughter, Yazmine, attends ULM.
“Thinking back on myself as a young student-athlete, having to deal with certain circumstances that these kids are having to deal with today, that’s a tremendous task. My heart goes out to them, but I want them to know it’s going to be alright.”
Mayo, a ULM point guard from 1975-79, was the first Black starting quarterback at Bastrop High School and the longest-tenured mayor in Monroe history. He said it was important to deliver a message of social justice through his experiences.
“It’s incumbent upon us to tell a compelling story to students and hopefully it will motivate them,” Mayo said. “It hasn’t been easy. It’s been very challenging at times, but ULM has been good to me and gave me a foundation that I hope can help these young men and women.”
Fields began her speech by playing rapper Silento’s 2015 hit single, “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae,” through the microphone. She used the audience reaction, which included cheers and dancing, to illustrate that music is a universal language that transcends racial barriers.
“I’m proud of how the athletic department got all this together and put these amazing guest speakers together for us,” said Langston Powell, a junior on the ULM men’s basketball team.
“Social justice means a lot to us and us being as one, so it was really good that they did this for us.”
McDonald announced at the event that ULM is creating an athletic-department task force to promote inclusion, diversity and social justice in the community. The task force will include athletes, staff and administrators.
“That’s pretty exciting to me,” Hodoh said. “To hear that this council will be composed of student-athletes, coaches and others across the campus, that’s a big first step to me. I definitely want to be a part of that and to see so many people take action in this makes me feel really good.”
Natt, who played at ULM from 1976-80, hopes to be more involved with ULM athletics going forward. He currently works with the Paul Millsap Foundation as the post-graduate program director at CORE4 Academy in Atlanta.
One of ULM’s famed Natt brothers, Kenny’s older brother, fellow L Club Hall of Famer Calvin Natt, was the eighth overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft.
A second-round NBA Draft pick in 1980, Natt transitioned to coaching after his playing career ended. After landing his first job at Youngstown State, he would later join the professional ranks and coach the Indian National Team.
In 15 years as an NBA assistant, Natt coached stars like Karl Malone and LeBron James, one of the NBA’s most outspoken players on social justice and police brutality.
“It’s good to see young men like LeBron, pro players and pro coaches and different athletes in general speak up in regard to this cause because these young men and women are our future,” Natt said.
“We ‘Boomers’ had to deal with things that millennials are having to deal with and its an adjustment period for all of us. To have LeBron and football players and baseball players and all the sports - even tennis and such - speaking up about it and bringing some attention to it, you know just how serious this matter is.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.