ALLIANCE – Dressed in his brown-and-gold letterman jacket and a University of Wyoming baseball cap, Lionel Grimes stood in the parking lot of the Alliance Community Pantry Friday afternoon, with a wide smile on his face.
A semi-truck filled with roughly 40,000 pounds of food and household items sat in front him. The Alliance native, who was one of the University of Wyoming’s Black 14, helped secure the donations for the Alliance Community Pantry, Michael’s World and Family Empowerment Ministries Inc.
“It feels just amazing,” the 71-year-old said.
‘Black 14:’ ‘It’s a story of joy’: Alliance native among Wyoming ‘Black 14’ who turned racism into community aid
The drop-off was part of a larger effort by the Black 14 Philanthropy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distribute more than 1 million pounds of food to pantries across the country. The partnership symbolizes healing between the Black 14 and the church more than 50 years after Black football players were removed from the University of Wyoming’s team for wanting to protest racism.
How did the donations come together?
In October 1969, the 14 Black players on the University of Wyoming football team lost their roster spots when they tried to ask their coach for permission to wear black arm bands as a protest during their upcoming game against Brigham Young University.
In their previous matchup, several Black Wyoming players reported being taunted and called racial slurs by BYU players.
BYU is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the time, the church had a policy prohibiting Black men from entering the priesthood. This rule was changed in 1978. Since then, Elder Kevin Birch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the institution has strived to make amends with the players.
“We seek to support one another,” Birch said.
‘There’s nothing more important than helping one another’
In 2019, members of the Black 14 founded a nonprofit organization to provide food, scholarships and leadership opportunities to underserved communities. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the players saw the devastating effect it was having on communities across the country and wanted to find a way to help.
The Black 14 Philanthropy reached out to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to see if the institution would be willing to assist with the effort. The church, which maintains its own farming and canning facilities, agreed to donate food and supplies to pantries on behalf of the organization.
The truck, which made the more than 1,770 mile-trek from Salt Lake City to Alliance, brought an assortment of items, including canned fruits and vegetables, syrup, hot chocolate mix, laundry detergent and dish soap.
Birch said members of the church felt grateful for Grimes’s willingness to work with the church and bring the goods to his hometown.
“There’s nothing more important than helping one another,” Birch said.
How will the food donations be used?
Debbie Skubiak, manager of the Alliance Community Pantry, said the donations will have a big impact on the agency’s ability to serve its patrons, especially items like laundry detergent and dish soap.
“It’s exciting that we can offer more to our families,” she said.
Miriam Strain of Michael’s World said the donations looked “pretty impressive.” The organization primarily deals in clothing for children, but the goods will allow Michael’s World to give out food, as well.
“Everything we get, we’ll use,” Strain said.
Rev. Raymont Johnson of Family Empowerment Ministries Inc. noted that the nonprofits in Alliance work together to provide assistance to people in need. The donations, he said, will allow them to help the whole community.
For Grimes, it meant a great deal to be able to give back to his hometown. Although he lives in the Columbus area now, he has many family members in Alliance and visits on most holidays.
His parents, Leon and Beverly Grimes, taught him the importance of giving back to the community. He always felt supported growing up in Alliance, he said, and was happy to be able to provide relief to families in need.
Grimes’s daughter, Erika Super, came to the city to help with the distribution, too. Wearing a University of Wyoming hoodie, Super said she felt proud of her dad and everything he has advocated for over the last 50 years.
Grimes always taught Super to stand up for her beliefs and think through her decisions, she said, and she is happy to see something positive emerge out of the injustice he experienced in 1969.
Birch said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hopes to continue the partnership with the Black 14 in the years to come.
Reach Paige at 330-580-8577 or pmbennett@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @paigembenn.
