Late last week (4/19/2024) President Joe Biden accepted the invitation of Morehouse College to speak at its 2024 commencement (Sunday, May 19th). This is an urgent post – mainly to alumni of Morehouse College – asking for solidarity with the student demand that the college publicly rescind the invitation given grievous repression of people in Gaza, Darfur, and Atlanta that the administration is enabling.
Specifically fellow alumni are requesting that:
- Sign this letter drafted by fellow alumni. The text of the letter asks that the College withdraw its invitation in alignment with hundred year history mission and the that of its alumni Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Write letters to the Morehouse College administration demanding an immediate cancellation (alumni@morehouse.edu, https://morehouse.edu/about/contact/)
I’m making a personal request that alumni of conscience:
- Demand that the College divest from any companies doing business in Israel as well as those involved in the Cop City militarized policing project.
- Cancel participation in alumni gatherings scheduled for graduation weekend (May 17th – 19th, 2024).
- Make contributions to the College contingent on its cancellation of Biden’s speech
- Provide material support to protesting students (GoFundMe, etc.)
- Make explicit to the College that retribution against the students is unacceptable.
- Educate your and your community on U.S. backed genocide(s) occurring in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tigray. Develop and extend solidarity with those suffering under this oppression.
But Why?
The Biden administration is funding and providing material and intelligence support to a genocide of Palestinian people. Over 34,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces since October 7 in one of history’s most horrific acts of racial violence. The weapons used to carry out these atrocities were supplied by the United States, authorized by the president. Scholars and students at Spelman College developed this comprehensive timeline of Black & Palestinian solidarity over the last 100 years if you need more context.
Sadly, this is just the tip of an iceberg of racial injustice. There is a militarized police training facility being built just outside of Atlanta in a Black community. The construction of the facility (called CopCity) has wrecked the environment, resulted in the assassination of a forest defender, and is opposed by local residents. Biden has backed this effort and the FBI and ATF have been actively involved in repressing any protest.
The Biden administration is behind the re-invasion of Haiti, racist border policies, and the increase in anti-Black mass incarceration.
As I write this, student protests in solidarity with the Palestinian people are being violently repressed at Columbia University, Harvard, Yale, UNC, Vanderbilt, USC, Princeton. The Morehouse College administration has threatened the students with:
- Withholding of diplomas
- Suspension
- Arrest
Two weeks ago, Dr. Ruha Benjamin gave this incisive speech at Spelman College on the necessity of student protest against genocide, fascism, racial injustice, misogynoir, and all forms of domination and oppression.
Charles write here 