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.
When Rhonda Harper, founder and director of Black Girls Surf, used to sit with her siblings in her Kansas home watching a string of television shows, she had no idea that enjoying beach specials from her landlocked living room would lead to the most exhilarating sport of her life: surfing. When skateboarding took a backseat and the search for Black female wave riders began, Harper started to conceive an organization that affects much more than Black girls having the right to compete.