COVID-19 disproportionately impacted Black communities in health, employment, and education. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota unveiled any pretense of equal treatment in the criminal justice system. This sparked outrage and nationwide protests. COVID-19 coupled with the examination of systemic racism ever-present in the United States had adverse impacts on Black communities. College students on campuses nationwide demanded a change in higher education. Students on campus coped with two major events at once: the isolation and fear of COVID-19 and the outrage that re-sparked the Black Lives Matter Movement. The pandemic persists as does systemic racism. Currently, there is no published research examining the impacts that COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement had on the education of Black college students in Saint Louis. To research these impacts, three factors were analyzed: the manifestation of trauma symptoms, systemic barriers, and contextual factors. These factors led me to pose two questions, 1) How did Black students at Saint Louis University (SLU) cope with the collective trauma of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement? 2) Do these factors impact the psychological and academic functioning of Black students at this Higher Education Institution?