Biden commencement address at Morehouse sparks debate over identity
Some students say Martin Luther King Jr., the school’s most famous alumnus, would be protesting the president’s speech instead of welcoming him.
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
May 11, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Morehouse senior Calvin Bell III considers himself a “scholar-activist.” (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
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ATLANTA — Regardless of what happens at Morehouse College’s commencement — whether President Biden’s keynote speech is jeered or cheered, whether students protest raucously or respectfully or not at all — Calvin Bell III will feel conflicted.
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Morehouse has opened many doors for the graduating senior. The college helped him become a finalist for the Rhodes scholarship. He interned for Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and is mulling a career in law or perhaps politics. A busload of family members will be in the crowd on May 19, cheering his crowning achievement as a Morehouse man.
But it won’t be all joy. Bell, 22, considers himself a “scholar-activist” and his heart goes out to the people in Gaza, where he is convinced a genocide is occurring, funded in part by American tax dollars. And he feels that his college’s most famous graduate, Martin Luther King Jr., would be speaking out against Biden instead of awarding him an honorary doctorate.
“I’ll be honest, it puts me at a weird place,” Bell said during an interview at a coffee shop a few steps away from a statue of King. He does not plan to disrupt Biden’s speech, but said he will understand if other students protest. “How do we balance the fact that we want our institution to be around and influential for a very long time, while also balancing the fact that we have our own ethical and moral obligations to current issues?”
Bell and other members of this historically Black, all-male college are caught in a crosscurrent during what would otherwise be the undeniable honor of having a sitting president address his graduating class. This moment — their moment — has been complicated by the war in Gaza and Biden’s “ironclad” support of Israel, even as the death toll approaches 35,000.
Morehouse students conflicted ahead of Biden address
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Morehouse College students expressed mixed reactions to President Biden giving this year's commencement speech at the historically Black college on May 19. (Video: Anna Liss-Roy/The Washington Post)
The United States’ role in the conflict has sparked a volatile debate across the country and on campus. With the presidential election six months away, students, faculty and alumni understand that Biden’s decision to speak at this commencement is more than an occasion for polite jokes and glad tidings — it’s a pitch to Black voters to help him win a second term, with Morehouse as a powerful backdrop in a key swing state.
The event has become a Rorschach test for an institution that has been dedicated to the education and improvement of Black men since it was founded shortly after the Civil War. An almost existential discourse is rippling through campus about whether the “Morehouse men” the university produces should be defined by the powerful people they stand beside — or those they stand against.
President Biden speaks at Morehouse College in January 2022. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
For some, the fact that the second sitting president in just over a decade is speaking at Morehouse is evidence of its clout and importance, an opportunity to affect policymaking from the West End of Atlanta to the West Bank of the Jordan. That spotlight is especially important to a college that prides itself as an on-ramp to a life of meaningful service — and happens to be in the middle of a half-billion-dollar fundraising campaign to expand financial aid for its neediest students.
Some at Morehouse argue that the decision to invite Biden prioritizes clout over conscience. It is antithetical to Morehouse’s activist underpinnings, they say, and to the legacy of its most famous graduate. They worry that giving Biden the imprimatur of Morehouse will mar the college, and that a graduation ceremony full of beaming Black faces will be used to whitewash the image of a man who critics say is supporting a slaughter.
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“I’m at Morehouse because I’m a student and a scholar of the Black radical tradition,” said Professor Andrew Douglas, who has taught political science since 2011 and was protesting Wednesday with students outside the college’s administrative building. “I wrote a book on Martin Luther King. I believe there are a set of principles and commitments that are enshrined in this institution — against war, against imperialism, against being used by White politicians for ends that we don’t really endorse.”
He added, “My sense is it would have been a much more powerful gesture for the college to say no to the president in this moment.”
Israel’s defenders strongly reject the notion that it is engaged in genocide, saying it has been forced to defend itself against Hamas fighters who intentionally drive up casualties by embedding themselves among civilians. Biden has repeatedly stressed Israel’s right to self-defense, though he has become steadily more critical of its conduct in Gaza, and said he empathizes with Palestinians suffering.
Israel launched its war after Hamas militants broke through the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. In response, Israel commenced a military campaign that has killed almost 35,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and devastated much of the enclave while severely restricting humanitarian aid.
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Biden on Wednesday threatened to cut off shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if it invades Rafah, the southern Gaza city where many Palestinians have fled.
Morehouse President David Thomas said in an interview that the college put out feelers for Biden and other commencement speakers in September — before the Hamas attack — and that he’d been considering potential speakers for months before that. The White House signaled Biden’s interest in March, and the school officially announced his appearance on April 23.
Thomas recounted some of that timeline in a message to the Morehouse community, but that has not stopped students, faculty and alumni from voicing their dissent, sometimes publicly.
A pro-Palestinian sign on the Morehouse campus. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
Morehouse has not seen protests as intense as those on some campuses that have led to more than 2,800 arrests across the country, according to a Washington Post tally. A consortium of historically Black institutions has held demonstrations locally, and some from Morehouse participated in a protest at nearby Emory.
Thomas has led town hall discussions with students, alumni and faculty, though he says his opinion about whether Biden should speak has not wavered.
“I just think that Morehouse has both the moral authority and the moral obligation to not run from that challenge. We should be a place that can hold those tensions,” Thomas said. “I just think that Morehouse has the capacity from a moral perspective that we can avoid the worst outcome, which is moving to a place where we have demonization and a lack of respect. You put those two things together and you kill the ability to have open dialogue.”
In that vein, he said, the administration will not punish students who dissent respectfully, even during graduation.
On Wednesday, students from Morehouse, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University — all historically Black institutions — protested the invitation, holding signs that blasted Biden and chanting at Thomas and “Genocide Joe.”
“While I understand why some of the older alumni might be excited by the amount of opportunity and press that this would bring to the institution, the general feeling on the ground is we don’t want [Biden] here,” said Malik P., a Morehouse sophomore who declined to give his full name. Malik told reporters he had been arrested a week earlier during a protest at Emory.
“It’s very obvious that we are being used to score political points and try to get more Black votes,” he added, comparing Biden’s commencement address to a recent visit to the area by former president Donald Trump. Trump stopped by a Chick-fil-A near Morehouse on April 10 and was photographed with a number of young Black people.
In 2020, Black voters were instrumental in propelling Biden to the White House, and they helped make him the first Democrat in 18 years to win Georgia. But now Biden faces a politically perilous softening of Black support, and Morehouse offers an opportunity to make his pitch at an institution geared toward Black excellence, backdropped by proud Black families.
While some students plan to protest Biden’s appearance, others argue for a more nuanced approach, saying the act of listening is part of the Morehouse way.
Aylon Gipson, 22, an economics major, said that while he personally believes there should be a cease-fire in Gaza, he worries that the graduation ceremony has already been overshadowed by the controversy.
“The graduation is not about Biden,” he said a few moments after a rehearsal for a step show that his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, is performing on commencement day. “It’s not necessarily about the alumni, either. It’s about the Class of 2024, who have been through a lot.”
A senior in his mortar is seen on the Morehouse campus. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
Many in that class had their high school graduations canceled or moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Four years later, they are celebrating their college degrees amid nationwide protests over the war in the Middle East, some of which have resulted in graduation exercises being canceled.
Gipson said he worries that an unruly protest of Biden could reflect badly on the university and its graduates. His grandmother and several other family members will be in the audience, and he is hoping for a day that is more joyous than raucous.
“As Morehouse men, I think we’ve been taught you always respect the office of the president even if you don’t necessarily respect the person that’s in it,” Gipson said. “A lot of students in my class and our peers will be looking at what Biden has to say to them. Biden has to make a pitch to us … I’ll be willing to listen to what he has to say, and I’ll be willing to be open-minded on that day.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is looking forward to engaging with Morehouse students.
“He’s going to be celebrating that day with them, talking about their future, you know, hoping to deliver remarks that hit home for these graduates and their families,” she said. “I can’t speak to the mood. I can’t speak to [the] security situation. I can’t speak to that. I can’t get into hypotheticals.”
Thomas, the Morehouse president, said some alumni have threatened to cancel donations due to Biden’s appearance. But he said respectful discourse, even on contentious topics, is central for any college, and Morehouse should not flinch from that — rather, he hopes the college’s ability to navigate this moment will add to its legacy. Biden’s only other commencement address this year is to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
“There’s no question that it elevates people’s awareness of the college,” Thomas said. “For a very small liberal arts college … having the president come definitely elevates that stature.”
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By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Cleve R. Wootson Jr. is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. Twitter
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