On a campus where 78 percent of the student body is white, the number of organizations for students of color, particularly women of color, is small. There are more than 750 student organizations at IU but only four historically black sororities and only five student groups specifically for black women, according to the BeINvolved website.
That’s why two IU students created this year Campus Curls and Coils, a student organization primarily for black students interested in natural hair. Natural hair is curly or coiled hair that hasn’t been treated by chemical straighteners such as relaxers and texturizers.
Senior Alexis Herring and sophomore Faith Girton said they created the group for students to connect with each other over their shared interest in natural hair. Herring and Girton are both co-founders and co-presidents of the club.
Girton said when she realized there wasn’t a natural hair club on campus last year, she decided to create one. Now, she said the club has 120 members.
“You always want to find a group of things and people you can relate to and relate with,” Girton said. “I felt that natural hair would be the perfect thing.”
Girton said Campus Curls and Coils organizes social, educational and community service events, such as teaching members about growing and maintaining natural hair or discussing relaxed and natural hair in the black community. The group is also planning on speaking with members of a local Boys and Girls Club chapter about self-love and hair.
“We just think it’s important to start embedding self-love and loving your image at an early age,” Herring said.
When Herring arrived at IU as a freshman, she said she experienced a kind of culture shock after coming from a primarily black high school.
“It was hard for me when I did not have peers in my class than looked like me or even see people who looked like me when I’m even just walking to class,” Herring said.
Herring said for students of color to succeed at IU, it’s important to have extracurricular activities and groups specifically for them.
“IU is a culture itself, and it’s hard coming into a culture when you can’t really self-identify and still try to be successful as a student,” Herring said.
Senior and club member Brittany Dixon said the group’s events do a good job explaining the societal pressures surrounding natural hair both from society at large and from within the black community.
“I think it’s really good that the organization kind of points those things out, like a red flag for those who are in the community, and it also promotes that inter-community love we’re supposed to have for one another,” Dixon said.
She said within the black community at IU, there was a need for a space specifically for black women.
“There's certain things that we go through as black women that should be able to be discussed within safe places and spaces,” Dixon said. “I feel as though this organization has literally made all of that possible.”
