Morehouse College administration and faculty members want "direct engagement" with President Joe Biden to address the outrage leading up to him delivering the school's commencement speech on May 19.
According to NBC News, Morehouse Provost Kendrick Brown said the Atlanta-based private college has requested additional communication with Biden as pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on campuses across the country over the ongoing war in Gaza.
"We can't control President Biden's schedule. But we can certainly say that if it's possible, it would be great if we could engage before the commencement. What form that might take and how that may show expression, of course, all of that is still a conversation," Brown told NBC News.
Morehouse's Regine Jackson, a professor of sociology and the dean of the Humanities, Social Sciences, Media and Arts Division, told NBC News that faculty members wanted "direct engagement" with Biden ahead of his speech.
Jackson pointed to the benefit of Vice President Kamala Harris holding a town hall during a visit to Morehouse, one of the country's most famous historically Black colleges, last fall.
"There was an opportunity for an exchange [with Harris], and we all recognize that commencement is not that opportunity, so [we're] trying to find and carve out space and time for that," Jackson told NBC News.
Newsweek reached out to Brown, Jackson and the Biden campaign via email Wednesday morning. This story will be updated with any provided statements.
Around 1,200 people were killed during a surprise Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel, while Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza has resulted in more than 34,000 deaths, according to local health officials reported by the Associated Press.
Biden has maintained his support for Israel, but he has also criticized the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for aid. Last week, he signed a bill authorizing $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza and other places.
Student protesters at colleges across the country continue to demonstrate against Israel's actions in Gaza and Biden's support for Israel. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that about 300 people were arrested Tuesday night in police crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and City College.
Morehouse professor Andrew Douglas told NBC News last week that faculty and students were "wrestling" over protesting the president, adding that the speech was "on everybody's mind" and he had "spoken with several faculty members who say under no conditions are they going to sit on a stage with Joe Biden."
Meanwhile, Morehouse alumni reportedly drafted a letter calling on the college to drop the president's commencement address over his support for Israel soon after the speech was announced.
"In inviting President Biden to campus, the college affirms a cruel standard that complicity in genocide merits no sanction from the institution that produced one of the towering advocates for nonviolence of the twentieth century," the letter reads, according to the Associated Press.
"If the college cannot affirm this noble tradition of justice by rescinding its invitation to President Biden, then the college should reconsider its attachment to Dr. King," it continues.
A statement shared to Instagram by the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine—Georgia demanded that Morehouse "rescind the invitation to President Biden, and use its moral authority to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza."
Morehouse is one of two colleges where Biden will deliver commencement addresses this year. Biden will also speak at the commencement of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, on May 25.
"There are of course opinions saying that we should rescind the invitation," Brown told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. "But there are a number of individuals who recognize this opportunity and the prominence of the speaker and an opportunity for Morehouse to highlight its mission and to be able to use this venue to ask important questions."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Gabe Whisnant is Deputy Weekend Editor at Newsweek based in South Carolina. Prior to joining Newsweek in 2023, he directed ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
