Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: MU athlete works with USA Diving, uses platform to amplify black voices
6/23/2020 11:12:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Word on the Herd
Herd's Williams is a rising sophomore in swimming and diving program
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Black Lives Matter movement has amplified black voices and created a real call for change across the country. Joelle Williams, a rising sophomore diver at Marshall, has been using social media as her megaphone for five years.
Williams, a public relations major who finished her freshman year with a 4.0 grade-point average, is the creator and founder of Black Girls Diving, a social media initiative with the goal of giving black competitors in aquatics an opportunity to tell their story. She had an idea after competing in the state meet during her freshman year of high school when she looked around and didn't see black representation in the pool.
"It's a very lonely feeling," Williams said. "It brought up questions if there was any representation in USA Diving at all. After doing some research, I realized there were very few athletes who were black who dove and fewer were in Division I."
Williams started diving after wrist injuries forced her to give up gymnastics. She says she was drawn to the diving board because she has a bold streak, but she also wanted a new challenge away from what people around her were doing.
"I went back to my first dive in the pool at the YMCA and that feeling it gave me," Williams said. "The feeling of serenity and silence underwater when you rip a dive, that's my favorite feeling in the world. Part of me chose diving because I knew it wasn't around my area of comfort. I've always marched to the beat of my own drum."
That personality has helped Williams receive an internship opportunity with USA Diving. She is also a member of USA Diving's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Council. When she is not starring in the classroom and the pool, she clicks through NCAA rosters in search of black divers she can connect with and share their story on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Her objective has resonated with the swimming community.
"I started my Twitter account to go alongside my Facebook page and I just started posting whenever a swim team would recognize an accomplishment of a black diver at their school," Williams said. "I was trying to give them a platform as well as give myself a voice."
The Facebook page launched in 2015 and the Twitter account was created in 2018. The current Black Lives Matter movement, which came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, has a deep connection for Williams. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up near and attended school in Ferguson, Missouri, the site of the murder of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. The death of Brown, who was black, sparked demonstrations and protests nationwide.
This movement feels different to Williams.
"The death of George Floyd really amplified the Black Lives Matter movement," she said. "The beginning was Michael Brown, which took place in Ferguson, Missouri, where I grew up. That's my connection to Black Lives Matter. After George Floyd's death, people outside of the black community started to be outraged. The black movement took off. The protests took off and it was no longer something that could be ignored. Where do you stand?"
Williams, who wants to be a social media director and live in all 50 states, has watched as corporations have made significant statements and changes as the current Black Lives Matter movement evolves. That helped her connect with USA Diving, which released a statement on June 9.
That statement reads, in part:
"As often happens outrage and sadness lead to self-examination. We are only at the beginning of this process, but it is already apparent that we must take action to stem the tide of systemic racism and social injustice in the world of sport. In an attempt to support a community that values diversity, equality and inclusion and to change the narrative we have spent the past several days engaging with members of our community. These critical conversations surround our ability to create an infrastructure within the diving ecosphere that combats institutional racism and promotes access to the sport."
Williams has and will have a hand in where USA Diving goes from here. She is proud of her fellow black divers and what they have accomplished, and she's not putting down the megaphone anytime soon.
"For a long time I was anonymous," Williams said. "I didn't want to recognize that I was a black athlete and that I've accomplished things. This is empowering. We've existed, we're here and we'll always be here."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
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