A national organization dedicated to helping men of color through college has moved its offices to the Springfield campus of Missouri State University.
The Student African American Brotherhood, or SAAB for short, signed a two-year contract with MSU to move its headquarters from Toledo, Ohio, to downtown’s Park Central Office building. MSU said the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the Missouri Scholarship and Loan Foundation funded the move.
Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe, who founded SAAB in 1990, spoke remotely at a university press conference on June 9. He said the move to Springfield gives SAAB visibility at a moment of upheaval across the country due to COVID-19 and protests following the death of George Floyd.
“What a time to bring about transformative change, as it relates to racial injustice and inequality for our families, communities, states, and nation at large,” Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe told KSMU SAAB plans to expand operations by working with elementary, middle, and high schools in Springfield to set up young men for success in college. MSU President Clif Smart also spoke at the press conference, as well as MSU’s chief diversity officer Wes Pratt, and the chair of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Abe McGull. McGull said SAAB, the university, and the CFO had been in talks about the move since 2015.
SAAB will be relocated by the end of the June.
