How LeBron James Ignored Memphis HBCU LeMoyne-Owen’s Legacy | Opinion

That’s what LeBron said.

Vanderbilt is a beautiful institution. From college president to president, Daniel Diermeier leads one of Tennessee’s most prestigious universities. I don’t have any problem with that.

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But when NBA icon LeBron James, a man with one of the most powerful platforms in the world, names Vanderbilt as Nashville’s academic anchor and moves on, he does something he may not have intended: erase historically black colleges and universities.

This deletion is not new. It’s not accidental. And it is not without consequences.

Nashville is home to four HBCUs: Fisk University, Tennessee State University, American Baptist College, and Meharry Medical College.

And here in Memphis, LeMoyne-Owen College has been a model of Black excellence and community resilience for more than 160 years. Our graduates have led courtrooms, classrooms, operating rooms, and town halls.

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A Memphis without the Grizzlies is like a Memphis without LeMoyne-Owen: diminished.

The Continuing Impact of LeMoyne-Owen College

I want to speak clearly for a moment, because at LeMoyne-Owen we know, perhaps better than most, what it feels like to be underestimated.

LeMoyne-Owen has had his share of tough starters and tougher years. Located in a neighborhood that is too often dismissed by the world at large, we have had to fight for our story to be told accurately, and fight even harder for the resources to continue telling it. But we are still here. And we’re not just surviving; we are building.

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Since I took over, here’s what this community has done together:

• Enrollment is up 15 percent, and it keeps going up. We expect one of our largest incoming classes in Fall 2026.

• We renew our Department of Humanities and Fine Artsbecause we believe that the life of the mind and the power of creative expression are not luxuries. They are needs.

• We launch a religious studies curriculum under the visionary leadership of Dr. Peter Gathje and Dr. Earle Fisher, two scholars who understand that Spirit and struggle have never been separate.

• We established the Lowery Communications Centerwhere our students learn podcasting, multimedia production, and how to take ownership of their own narrative in a world that will try to write it for them.

• Our cybersecurity programone of our best kept secrets, it is competitive with any similar institution in this region. Our students are not left behind. They are ready.

We have done all of this with limited resources, at a difficult time, because that is what black institutions have always done. We make an exit from nothing. That’s not a metaphor. That’s our story.

And yet, even as we build, there are forces working against us.

The fight over HBCU funding

Title III funding, the financial backbone that has allowed HBCUs to maintain educational quality and institutional stability for decades, faces a 14.4% cut in the proposed 2026 federal budget. The research grants our institutions have earned for years are being canceled under the banner of an anti-DEI policy, as if the pursuit of equity is something to be ashamed of.

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Florida A&M lost a biomedical research grant it had held for 33 years. Morehouse School of Medicine lost funding for maternal health research, research that was saving the lives of black women.

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These are not line items. They are lifesavers. And when they are cut, it is not the bureaucracy that suffers. They are our students. They are our communities. They are our children.

So when a man with LeBron’s platform points to Nashville and points to Vanderbilt, and only Vanderbilt, it feeds a narrative that says black institutions don’t count. That prestige, by default, belongs elsewhere.

LeBron James’ open invitation

Let me be clear about what Memphis is.

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Memphis is a city whose identity was shaped by the people who built it, many of whom came from LOC. HBCUs have been part of that history since Reconstruction. We are not the backdrop. We are the base.

The Grizzlies belong here because this city is more than a market; It is a community.

LeBron, I’m not writing this to embarrass you. I write it because I believe his commitment to black communities is real. I have seen you build a school. I’ve seen you use your name to encourage people. That’s not performance. That’s character.

So here’s my invitation, and I mean it sincerely: come to Memphis. Walk around this campus. Let me show you what 160 years of resilience looks like when shown at its Sunday best. Sit with our students. Breaking bread with our faculty. Listen to our alumni tell what this education meant to them and how much it cost to get here.

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And if you’re looking for something to do on Friday night, our Annual Presidential Gala will be April 17 at the Renasant Convention Center. It is our capital campaign event, a celebration of what LeMoyne-Owen has been and a statement of what we are becoming. You would be more than welcome at our table.

Memphis is more than a market. LeMoyne-Owen College is more than a footnote.

It’s time for the world to see us that way.

Dr. Christopher B. Davis is LeMoyne’s 14th president–Owen University.

This article originally appeared in Memphis Commercial Appeal: In pushing for Grizzlies to move, LeBron ignores Memphis HBCU | Opinion