Black Men of Ellensburg builds connections in CWU, Ellensburg communities

As a member of the CWU community for two decades, Diversity and Equity Center Director Mal Stewman has witnessed an evolution of affinity groups for Black men over the years.

The current iteration of the group he facilitates is called The Black Men of Ellensburg.

“In the 2000s, there was Extraordinary Men Pursuing Intellectual Readiness through Education, or EMPIRE, which was founded by a student who wanted to build something similar to a fraternity,” Stewman says.

“EMPIRE went and became Brother to Brother, which was affiliated with the African American Brotherhood. Those are some historical examples of affinity groups at CWU, and I am in the process of rebooting the men of color group in the mindset of EMPIRE or Brother to Brother, because I still see a need for a group of color on campus.”

Stewman had been noticing a void in the community when it came to spaces for Black men, so he partnered with Director of Capital Planning and Projects Delano Palmer to build an intentional community to serve this purpose. That’s how The Black Men of Ellensburg was formed. The group meets for breakfast every other week at various restaurants in town.

“We have explored other things about what this group could be, but the main intention is to build connection,” Stewman says. “It is for all Black men on campus — professors, staff members, and a few graduate assistants. We have at least one undergraduate student who comes, and then we have community members as well. My son, who’s in high school, also comes when he's available.”

Stewman added that group members have no specific commitments and simply attend when they are able to, with no agenda other than building community and connecting with one another.

“We have begun to venture into doing some service projects as well,” he says. “Delano is on the board for Habitat for Humanity and has invited the guys to come out and do that. They have taken on some service projects and they've been involved with the Rotarians as well.”

Stewman notes that the group is significant in a town like Ellensburg, where spaces like these are few and far between.

“Honestly, it is unusual to see that many Black men in one space, so anytime we get ten of us in one room, it's like wow, we have a little bit of community here,” he says. “The cookouts are really great. Our families are there, we are barbecuing, and it's music and it's just a good time to just be. Those are the best times we have had. Good food is good food. We try to support businesses, too, because we want to support people of color.”

Stewman says the group has a list of about 20 members and is always striving to expand and invite new people.

“We want to be able to mobilize folks,” Stewman explains. “It will always be a transitional group, because we have students in it and people coming and going from our community. We don't have a very consistent Black community here. Ultimately, we would see ourselves moving into consistent service projects and showing up at spaces to be intentional, at events.”

Stewman says The Black Men of Ellensburg members support one another in their personal interests, too, like showing up to a car show one of their members was involved in after a morning of breakfast and conversation.

“It's nice to be able to look out into the audience and see somebody of color, particularly someone from your group, because typically that's not the case,” Stewman explains. “We are almost always in meetings as the only one. Speaking for myself, a lot of times, in meetings I am the only Black man. Typically, I am the only one in the grocery store, whether I'm walking downtown or wherever it may be, so we have to create those intentional spaces to build community for ourselves.”

Stewman emphasizes the importance of finding these connections so that Black men in Ellensburg can become more aware of the social opportunities that are available to them. 

“Everybody needs some support,” he says. “Just getting connected is a benefit, because you might have something to offer as well. So, that exchange of knowledge often ends up being someone talking about what's going on, and the group will be able to speak to it, talking to some of the younger folks about how they can navigate college a little bit better or how we made some of our career choices as professionals.”

For anyone interested in getting involved with The Black Men of Ellensburg, email Malbert.Stewman@cwu.edu or Delano.Palmer@cwu.edu.

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Editor's note: Katherine Camarata was the University Relations student writer for winter and spring 2024.