Under dark skies, a line of Morehouse College faculty members played African drums as they led the graduating class of 2025 to their commencement ceremony Sunday morning.
Cheers erupted moments later as the students walked past rows of family members and friends as the master of ceremonies announced the start of a “glorious day,” despite the threatening weather.
Sunday was glorious indeed for the students at Morehouse, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College, Atlanta’s three largest historically Black schools, which, in a rare move, held their commencement ceremonies on the same day.
Clark Atlanta usually holds its commencement a day earlier. Morehouse School of Medicine and Morris Brown College held their graduation ceremonies Saturday.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, Morris Brown’s commencement speaker, pledged a $100,000 gift to the college.
“You’ve come too far not to get up. Fight until you build your business, company, find a cure for cancer, franchise yourself or get on your feet,” Jakes told the graduates.
Morehouse, which began its commencement outdoors on its campus, moved the ceremony indoors because of the weather.
The speeches largely stayed clear of politics, despite the criticism of the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Department of Education and research funding and efforts to terminate the immigration records of some international students.
Morehouse’s commencement speaker, educator-activist Cornel West, briefly mentioned “spiritual wickedness in high places” as he urged the 511 graduates to “raise your voice” and “be courageous.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
At Morehouse, a honorary bachelor’s degree was presented posthumously to Dennis T. Hubert, a sophomore divinity school student at Morehouse College who was lynched by a racist mob on June 15, 1930, at the age of 18 in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh community.
Morehouse presented a honorary degree to acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay and to its president, David A. Thomas, who is retiring in July.
At Clark Atlanta’s ceremony, the rain pouring down outside the Georgia State University Convocation Center had no chance of dampening the spirits of the soon-to-be graduates inside.
Cheers greeted the students as they filed into the stadium clad in red graduation caps and gowns.
Clark Atlanta President George T. French Jr. greeted the 727 graduates, as well as faculty and spectators. After asking the degree earners to stand, he urged them to thank the people in their lives who supported their pursuit of higher education.
“You all didn’t get here alone,” French said. “You had mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, nieces, nephews, Cousin Pookie. … Turn to your family members and give them thanks.”
The crowd obliged with an enormous cheer.
Soon afterward, Dennis Kimbro delivered the commencement address. Kimbro has a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, is a business professor at Clark Atlanta and has written books, including “Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice.”
“Put your foot on the highest step,” he said at the outset. “There’s nothing you cannot do.”
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kimbro urged graduates to overcome self-imposed limitations and strive for their full potential. He emphasized the importance of community and finding good mentors. He said they should be equipped to do that because they have graduated from an institution that has persevered.
He noted that Clark Atlanta, which was founded as Clark College in 1869 and merged with Atlanta University in the late 1980s, survived when dozens of historically Black colleges and universities across the country closed.
“When you look back and consider … everything that has been done to you and all that you had to overcome, when any other institution of higher learning would have thrown in the towel, not you, Clark Atlanta,” Kimbro said. “You refused to quit. You’re just like the Energizer Bunny. You just keep going and going and going.”
As the Clark Atlanta ceremony concluded, a joyous crowd arrived for Spelman’s ceremony.
“Spelman remains a remarkable institution,” Spelman College interim President Roz Brewer began the school’s 138th commencement. She applauded the class of 2025 as the largest graduating class — 694 students — in Spelman’s history.
The crowd erupted in applause, with many showing their support for the class with blue-and-white ensembles or Spelman College stolls.
Actress Taraji P. Henson served as the commencement speaker for the ceremony. She reminded the graduates to look to their circles for sisterhood and uplift during a political and social world where Black women have been exhausted of their ongoing efforts.
“Black women, we are intelligent,” Henson reminded the graduates.
She asserted that they are nurturing and nation builders, but they needed to understand that they didn’t make it this far in Black woman history by themselves.
Henson told the graduates to honor their ancestors, who fought for their descendants to make it this far.
“Celebrate the resilience, the joy, the fortitude,” Henson affirmed. “The body and spirit never forgets our resilience.”
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