In 2016, six Broadway professionals, distraught about the swell of news regarding Black Americans being shot by police, presented a fundraiser, a concert titled “Broadway for Black Lives Matter.” That performance served as the inaugural initiative of the organization first known as the Broadway for Black Lives Matter Collective, which further evolved into the Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC).
Fast-forward to 2021: BAC and its founders (Jackie Bell, Amber Iman, Cameron J. Ross, Britton Smith, Adrienne Warren and Christian Dante White) received a 2020 Special Tony Award for their advocacy work and impact. The Tony honor gave BAC even greater visibility and donations, which allowed the organization to grow financially and expand its staff.
Since then, BAC has also undergone natural leadership transitions. Co-founder Smith served as president and chair of the board beginning in 2016. But in 2023, he felt the need to step back. “[My] career never stopped while picking up being the president of a nonprofit — and I have a funk liberation band called Britton and the Sting that’s emerging,” Smith said. “I was wearing three hats and juggling them all, and it was exciting because all of the hats have a ring of liberation and Blackness rooted in them, so it felt good. And as BAC began to grow … it was very clear that I needed to move aside, not away from, and find someone to take us to the next level.”
That person is Richard Gray, a member of the board of directors since BAC’s inception. Gray, an experienced community organizer, is currently the deputy director of New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. “I’m not a part of Broadway as a part of my job; I’m a big fan of Broadway,” Gray said. “My desire to get into BAC is that there’s been this growing conversation within the field of education reform and equity reform policy, in general, that we need to have greater connection to the arts.”
