NBA star Chris Paul enrolls in historically Black college in NC, helps students to vote
Basketball star Chris Paul is enrolled at a historically Black college — and is among the NBA players helping students to vote.
Paul told ESPN he is taking classes at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, multiple news outlets reported. Elwood Robinson, university chancellor, confirmed the basketball star’s enrollment last week in a Facebook post.
The announcement comes as Paul and other professional basketball players team up on an effort to give students who attend historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) rides to voting sites for the general election, NBC Sports reported.
“We are providing transportation to HBCU students to get (to) the polls so we are working on that now,” Paul said, according to the news outlet.
WSSU seems to back his decision, making a Facebook post with the hashtags “#MakingADifference #RamsVote.”
“To see that he’s helping get students to the polls is a big deal because he wants to make sure everybody gets that chance to vote,” James DuBose, an associate athletics director at WSSU, told the Winston-Salem Journal.
Paul, a point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, is from North Carolina. He played for Wake Forest University for two seasons and entered the NBA in 2005.
Last week, Paul said he’s trying to raise awareness about HBCUs, telling ESPN there’s “nothing like” them.
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“Everyone in my family went to HBCUs except for me,” he told ESPN. “If you grow up in the South, you’re going to just have that culture and DNA in you. For me, it’s just been about trying to (be) a voice sometimes to the voiceless. Everyone doesn’t know about HBCUs and why they were created.”
There are about 100 HBCUs in the country, and many were started to provide education for Black students during times of segregation. In recent years, major donors, celebrities and prominent HBCU graduates have brought renewed attention to the schools, McClatchy News previously reported.
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 11:49 AM with the headline "NBA star Chris Paul enrolls in historically Black college in NC, helps students to vote."
