Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are putting the spotlight on the diverse journeys of Black women across sports—from the veteran athletes, to up-and-coming stars, coaches, executives and more—in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women in Sports.
Diahann Billings-Burford is not a woman who’s easily intimidated. Not now. And not in high school, either.
Back in the mid-1980s, when race relations in New York were trending toward an inflection point following the ’89 murder of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins, she was the only Black player on Brooklyn Poly Prep’s girls field hockey team.