Next month will mark the Rev. Stephen A. Green’s 10th anniversary of his graduation from Morehouse College.
It is a moment Green was excited about, but the joy over that moment is being tempered by his dismay that his alma mater is planning to have President Joe Biden as its commencement speaker. Green, who previously planned to attend commencement, may skip the event.
“I am still in limbo. I want to celebrate with my classmates and colleagues, but this has a different flavor now,” said Green, the pastor of St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem. “This has left a bad taste in the mouth of many alumni.”
Credit: Stephen A. Green
Credit: Stephen A. Green
Biden is set to deliver his commencement address at a time when anger among some over U.S. policy concerning the Israel-Hamas war has led to an eruption of student protests and arrests at several universities, including Columbia, New York University and Yale. Protests emerged Thursday that resulted in a clash with police at Emory University in Atlanta.
In interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some alumni say older graduates are eager to hear Biden speak while younger ones have mixed feelings about his planned appearance.
The Morehouse stop in a key battleground state will provide Biden an opportunity to try to shore up his base among Black supporters, which has been lagging.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, at least two-thirds of them children and women. Citing those numbers, Green called on Morehouse President David A. Thomas in a scathing petition and online letter to rescind the president’s invitation, because of what he calls Biden’s attempt to “launder consent for genocide.”
Credit: ccompton@ajc.com
Credit: ccompton@ajc.com
Green said more than 250 Morehouse alumni from 1969 until the class of 2023 have signed the petition.
“Morehouse trained us to be advocates for social justice,” Green said of the petition. “To see how many people have signed so far shows a level of respect for Morehouse.”
Morehouse has not indicated that it is even considering rescinding the invitation, and Thomas has met with student and faculty groups this week to hash out concerns.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
State Rep. El-Mahdi Holly, a Democrat representing parts of Henry and Clayton counties, is against Biden speaking, saying he is not interested in the president using Morehouse for “political Blackface.”
A 1998 graduate of Morehouse, Holly also points to the number of Palestinian deaths, which he says are partially financed by American dollars in support of Israel.
Credit: El-Mahdi Holly
Credit: El-Mahdi Holly
“At Morehouse, we have embraced a legacy that requires us to do what is in our best effort to protect lives,” Holly said. “His coming to Morehouse, while not calling for a cease-fire, flies in the face of our alumni who have said repeatedly that this is not the time to show his face. He does not have the moral fiber to speak to our students about how they should face the world after Morehouse.”
Marc Watkins, a 1996 graduate of Morehouse, who came to the college after a five-year stint in the Air Force, said that he does not agree with anything that Biden has said or done regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
Credit: Marc Watkins
Credit: Marc Watkins
“I am sorely disappointed in our nation’s lack of response to Israel’s heavy-handed tactics in Gaza and their attacks on the Palestinians and Iran and Iraq. There needs to be a cease-fire in Gaza now,” Watkins said. “He has shown zero leadership and this is one of his biggest policy disappointments.”
Watkins, an Atlanta attorney, who wears T-shirts supporting Palestinians, paused for a second before continuing.
“But he is the president,” he said.
Watkins says the overall good that Biden’s visit will do for the college outweighs the bad.
Credit: Marc Watkins
Credit: Marc Watkins
“Anytime national attention is being brought to Morehouse is a positive thing,” Watkins said. “I understand his poll numbers are not the best and Black folks are disillusioned by him, but any light is a good thing. I can separate the two.”
Presidents often use graduation addresses as stump speeches during election season, to announce policy or to reaffirm their position on prominent contemporary issues.
Chuck Hobbs, who is celebrating his 30th anniversary this year, sees Biden’s presence on campus as a golden opportunity for Morehouse — if his feet are held to the fire.
“This is an awesome opportunity for President Biden to engage with the Morehouse college community, which has historically been at the vanguard of leadership for not only Atlanta and Georgia, but for the United States,” said Hobbs, who graduated in 1994. “This is a platform for him to answer many of the questions that African Americans have about his commitment to the Black community.”
Credit: Chuck Hobbs
Credit: Chuck Hobbs
In 2013, President Barack Obama, the first sitting president to speak at a Morehouse graduation, used his speech as an opportunity to talk directly to Black men. On campus and beyond.
The first Black president said there was “no time for excuses” for that generation of African American men and that it was time for their generation to step up professionally and in their personal lives.
Hobbs, a retired attorney, who is now a prominent writer and blogger in Tallahassee, Florida, said Biden should follow that same path.
Credit: Chuck Hobb
Credit: Chuck Hobb
“A majority of the crowd and the graduates will be well-read African Americans who are not looking for platitudes,” Hobbs said. “They want the substance of what he has done, what he is doing and what he is going to do for Black people and marginalized and oppressed people across the globe.”
Green said the pressure should now be on Morehouse.
He said he and other alumni will continue to pressure the school to pick another speaker who “will carry the torch for social justice.”
“We have always been consistent, morally, as a college,” Green said. “But as we have grown, we have prioritized other things. Like access and corporate dollars. I understand how that can be important, but we cannot lose our focus.”
Otherwise, he predicts there will be some form of verbal and vocal protests during the president’s visit.
A “stain on the eye of Mother Morehouse,” he said.
Only he may not be there to see it.
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