President Joe Biden’s upcoming commencement address at Morehouse College has ignited controversy among students and alums.
On Tuesday, Morehouse students gathered in a campus auditorium to protest the college’s decision to invite Biden to deliver the commencement address next month.
The dissatisfaction extends beyond the student body, with alums and officials from Morehouse, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University urging the college to rescind its invitation.
In a letter Wednesday, concerned alums criticized Biden’s role in a recent foreign aid package, which included funding for Israel’s conflict with Hamas. The letter highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, condemning Biden’s leadership as contributing to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians. The alumni called on Morehouse to stand against injustice and not allow its platform to be used to “launder consent for genocide.”
Faculty members from the three Atlanta institutions expressed similar concerns, questioning the decision to invite Biden to a historically Black college, especially given Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy as an advocate for social justice.
“Like any group of alumni of any college or university, political and ethical commitments among us are not unanimous,” the alum wrote. “There are many among us, however, who stand on the prophetic vision of our most famous alumnus, who said in 1967 that war is a hell that diminishes us all as human beings, and that our moral conscience compels us to speak out against it.”
The concerned alumni invoked one of the college’s most famous graduates.
“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 non-violence of the 20th century in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 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.”
The alumni went on to say that the decision to have the president speak for commencement is harmful to not just Palestinians, but all associated with the prestigious higher learning institution.
“Nobody wins in this. Not our precious brothers on campus, who are most certainly being used as a step stool for President Biden’s political ambitions. Not faculty, who are already up against institutional pressures to remain silent. And certainly not Palestinians, who, lest we forget, are the reason students and many faculty are protesting in the first place,” they explained.
The alumni also suggested that Morehouse not only refuse Biden to serve as commencement speaker but divest from all companies that do business with Israel.
“Should the college continue down this course, we urge our fellow brothers across the Morehouse community to make your dissent known. We urge our community to recall the lesson we all heard over the course of our time at the college, which is that the bells toll for our moral leadership. Justice compels us to work to bring this genocide and brutal occupation to an end.”
Biden’s Foreign Policy Under Scrutiny
Biden’s foreign policy decisions, particularly concerning the Israel-Hamas conflict, have sparked protests on university campuses nationwide.
The president recently signed a $95 billion war aid measure, allocating approximately $26 billion for Israel and $1 billion in humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.
Despite calls for a cease-fire, Biden emphasized the need for Israel to ensure the swift delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Biden’s foreign policy decisions have drawn criticism from within his voter base, potentially affecting the upcoming elections. However, Morehouse also received criticism on how Biden was selected as commencement speaker.
“We understand that the decision to platform Biden was made solely by the Morehouse administration and that students and faculty members were not consulted,” Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine’s Georgia chapter wrote. “College and university administrators have an obligation to include students and faculty members in decisions that will affect them. This decision will do lasting harm to everyone associated with the College.
Further, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine- Georgia emphasized that having Biden as commencement speaker was not simply detrimental to Morehouse College’s reputation, but to other Atlanta institutions as well.
“It will do serious reputational damage to Morehouse and other schools in the Atlanta University Center consortium. It will alienate donors. It will discourage new applications from a youth generation that overwhelmingly supports a cease-fire. It will prompt significant protest among current students and faculty, subjecting them to discipline and, potentially, dangerous confrontations with the police,” the group explained. “It is not too late to correct the course. There is no reason why Morehouse cannot rescind this invitation. Indeed, the college must do so.”
