'We are here': The Black UNC Yearbook shines a light on the Black student body

Until recently, yearbooks were a thing of the past for UNC students. Student organization Union of Black Men and the media group Historically Black at UNC have brought the school yearbook experience to campus.

The project, titled the “Black UNC Yearbook,” aims to showcase the entire Black student body at the University. From Jan. 14 to 24, the Black Yearbook held free portrait sessions for over 300 students. 

“I just really wanted to bring the community together,” UBM president Ashton Hutchinson said. “In high school, I know that we were kind of cut short due to [COVID-19], and we didn't get the same experience. Some of the seniors here probably didn't even get a yearbook, didn't even get to take a picture, so I just wanted them to have that opportunity.”

Hutchinson worked alongside the recently-elected president of HBUNC, Addison Truzy. The project was first brought to his attention by photographers Kyran Taylor, who is also the UBM executive assistant, and Letrell Grady. 

Taylor and Grady were inspired by a similar concept project at Duke University, which they were hired for. Taylor brought the idea to Hutchinson, who connected with HBUNC’s former President Krystal Lacayo to collaborate on it. 

“This yearbook features a lot of things, not only showing the different friend groups on campus, but also showing how much space we take up as a Black community on campus in different organizations,” Truzy said.

The Black Yearbook is set to become a physical book, complete with spreads of the different classifications, organizations and activities on campus. Within two weeks, the project held six portrait sessions in the Shuford Suite of Gardner Hall and other locations.

Unlike the brief picture day breaks in grade school, the sessions were events in themselves, with music and space for students to hang out in the Shuford Suite for hours. 

“That space was just amazing — the music, all the Black people coming together, congregating,” Hutchinson said. “It's just something we needed because January can be kind of slow when it's cold outside; people not really seeing each other. It was nice to have everyone in one space.”

The Black Yearbook, though a project about joy and community, also underscores an issue that the Black community at UNC faces. 

In September 2024, The Carolina Alumni Review revealed that the percentage of Black students in the first-year class fell from 10.5 percent in 2023 to 7.8 percent in 2024, making it the lowest drop of all racial and minority groups at UNC. Other racial groups' percentages either rose or fell by 1 percentage point or less. 

The yearbook serves not only as a fun keepsake but a source of visibility for every Black student and organization on campus for years to come. 

“I feel like it was very important, with the decline in the Black population, to just show that we are here,” Taylor said. “I feel like it's very important that the classes that come after us have an example of what we can do and what we can do when we come together, so and then that way, I guess it is record keeping.”

Chapter member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority Kezia Kennedy also shares this sentiment. 

“I really appreciate that this is getting made in the first place, especially now that the Black population is slowly dwindling off,” Kennedy said. “We lost 25 percent in the new class, so it's very important to memorialize and take a moment to acknowledge the spaces that we've created.”

Kennedy heard about the yearbook through UBM’s Instagram that has over 6,000 followers. For her, the portrait sessions were unlike any other experience she’s ever had. 

“We got to look at them and get feedback and move things around a little bit, so that was nice,” Kennedy said. “In high school, when we've taken pictures in the past, you take the picture and then you're like, ‘Okay, you're good to go.’ You never get to see the result, so I really appreciated being able to see what the picture looked like and then adjust it as we wanted it.”

With hundreds of Black undergraduates left to be photographed, the Black UNC Yearbook isn’t finished with its portrait sessions. Students who haven’t gotten their photos taken can look forward to a makeup date on Feb. 5 from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Shuford Suite. 

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