Charlotte hosts HBCU alumni cookout for scholarship 

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

The seventh annual Queen City HBCU Cookout Scholarship Fundraiser returns to Johnson C. Smith University on July 25.

It’s always a good time for Black college homecoming.

The seventh Queen City HBCU Cookout Scholarship Fundraiser on July 25 brings alumni from the nation’s historically Black schools to Johnson C. Smith University’s Humanities Lawn for food, music and vendors.

General admission tickets are $35, and children’s general admission is $15. Proceeds will go to the nonprofit’s scholarship fund.

The cookout, which goes from 4-8 p.m., promotes awareness about HBCUs while raising scholarship funds to support students. This year’s cookout will take place on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University on their humanities lawn, which will serve as a space for food trucks, vendors, tug of war contest, spades tournament and line dance competition.

“It happens to be the largest HBCU event here in the Queen City in addition to the largest scholarship collaborative scholarship fundraiser in Charlotte,” said Jerome Brooks, a graduate of Jackson State University and the cookout’s co-organizer with Tia Boyd (North Carolina A&T State University and David Thomas (Alabama A&M University). “So, of course the revenue that is generated is dispersed among the participating

HBCU alumni chapters towards the scholarship funds to assist deserving students here in the Charlotte metro area.” 

Brooks said the cookout came about after the CIAA moved its annual basketball tournament from Charlotte to Baltimore and the National Battle of the Bands relocated to Houston. The first cookout was held at Bojangles Coliseum in 2019, a year after Brooks and Boyd met at a North Carolina A&T State University football watch party. Boyd, an A&T alumna, was the host.

“We wanted to create a space where the HBCU community [could gather] since these two large events left, so we decided to form this collaborative effort and we were able to loop in all 53 HBCU chapters here in Charlotte and we kicked off our inaugural cookout that same year,” he said. 

Since then, the cookout has grown and gained support from small business owners as well as the Charlotte Hornets, which is sponsoring the showcase. 

In addition to the outdoor event, there’s also a free financial literacy session on Thursday at the Allegra Westbrooks Branch Library on Beatties Ford Road to provide guidance on budgeting, wealth building and home ownership. 

“The entire organization is not just about fellowship and fun; it's kind of a party with a purpose,” Brooks said. “We want to of course raise scholarship money, raise awareness about HBCUs, but also provide financial knowledge for our community.” 

Brooks said his experience at Jackson State gave him a “sense of support” and “philanthropy” in addition to a foundation for giving back. 

“Everything that we did at Jackson State as students with respect to things being embedded in us by the administration, our mentors, etc. It laid that foundation essentially for what I’m doing today here in the community,” he said. 

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