The key to being a successful pioneer isn’t the boldness to go first. It’s having the skills and fortitude to survive the experience.
“I jokingly say it’s good to be history – if you’re still around,” quips C.B. Claiborne B.S.E.’69, the first Black student-athlete at Duke.
Well, Claiborne is still around, and the story of his Duke experience is now told in “C.B.: Power to the Player,” a new documentary short film. The filmmakers explore why the young basketball player and scholar from Danville, Virginia, chose to come to Duke instead of going to a school where his path might have been smoother, and they explain how he went about advocating for Black students, faculty and staff.
“He not only shows up as a good basketball player, he shows up as a good student and he shows up as somebody who is already politically and socially inclined because of the events that have surrounded him over his life,” says Javier Wallace, one of the documentary’s producers.
Wallace is the Race and Sport postdoctoral associate with Duke’s Program in Education. His co-lead on the project is Martin Smith, an assistant professor of the practice of education. The two former college athletes conduct research and teach about the historical and cultural significance of the intersections between athletics and activism. When Wallace was new to Duke and started asking about who integrated Duke athletics, he and Smith uncovered a rich story with a dynamic, fascinating living person at its center.
“He really changes the culture of Duke, not only athletically, but actually from a greater perspective,” Smith says. “If he doesn’t take his stand, people like me are not professors, are not deans at Duke. For that, I’m grateful for C.B. Claiborne.”
When Claudius Claiborne arrived at Duke in 1965, there were few other Black students because the undergraduate class was integrated just two years earlier. There was also little will to provide an athletic scholarship for a Black basketball player, but Claiborne had the grades to earn an academic scholarship to study engineering.
His high school basketball coach, Hank Allen, suggested that Claiborne might have an opportunity to do something significant by carefully choosing where he attended college. Surrounded by a supportive community in Danville, Claiborne took a chance on Duke.
His four years were marked with discrimination and with successes fighting against it. He was part of the famous Allen Building Takeover in 1969, when Black students occupied the administrative building to demand social equity. The takeover, and the attention that it garnered, helped expedite the formation of a Black student association and a department of African and African American Studies, a raise in pay and benefits for Black staff at Duke, and the hiring of Black faculty members. In short, it was a sea change for a small private Southern university.
“It’s just an incredible story,” says Emmy-nominated video editor Funmi Ogunro, who joined the Bass Connections team that formed to create the documentary. “I learned so much about C.B., and the students did as well – how dedicated he was to helping other Black students on campus with access to basic human rights.”
The 14-minute documentary premieres Feb. 13, 2025, in Durham. The time and location are yet to be determined, but cbclaibornedoc.com has more info and a way to sign up for email updates.
The team would like to expand “C.B.” to full feature length, but that would depend on an executive producer stepping in to fund the work. Whatever happens, they are happy to have elevated an important Duke story, and they want to continue the relationship with Claiborne. “We both believe in the power of telling people’s stories and letting them use their voice,” Smith said. “We have a history that cannot be forgotten. People can learn so much from it. I would argue that we can never forget C.B. Claiborne’s story.”