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Our Story
Our mission is to diversify the neurosciences by building a community that celebrates and empowers Black scholars and professionals in neuroscience-related fields.
We hope to galvanize everyone, including non-Black allies, to join us in creating this change. All are welcome to attend our public, educational events! We will lift as we climb, continue to grow and cultivate our community, and inspire the next generation to succeed and surpass us. We are Black In Neuro!
Black In Neuro is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in April 2021.
Our History
Black In Neuro started as a grassroots organization in July 2020 in response to the brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and the prevalence of anti-Black racism in society, seen notably during the New York Central Park incident with Christian Cooper. The latter gave rise to #BlackBirdersWeek, which catalyzed #BlackBotanistsWeek, #BlackInAstroWeek, and our own movement, #BlackInNeuroWeek.
#BlackInX initiatives are not new, and we celebrate those who came before us, such as #BlackAndSTEM. With this foundation and the events of 2020 as a driving force, our response was mass collective mobilization.
We owe our existence to a “call to action” Tweet from our Founding President, Angeline Dukes, that inspired 16 Black and 6 non-Black neuroscientists, neuroengineers, and science communicators across various career stages to begin planning the first #BlackInNeuroWeek.
Our celebration of Blackness within neuroscience-related fields blossomed with a viral promotional video (seen over 140,000 times on Twitter), millions of engagements via Twitter and Instagram, and the collation of over 1,600 profiles of Black professionals in neuroscience-related fields on our website.
The success and reach of Black In Neuro, with engagement in over 60 countries, led us to establish ourselves as a registered non-profit organization and become a permanent fixture within the world of neuroscience and STEM. Together, we will continue to push toward diversity, equity, inclusion, accountability, and justice within academia and beyond.
