“Your very presence in this place as graduates of Saint Louis University stands as a contradiction to the world’s expectations,” Rev. Traci Blackmon told the participants of Sankofa, the annual graduate recognition ceremony presented by the African American Studies Program at Saint Louis University.
“It means that your hard work has paid off, but this moment does not just belong to you.”
Nearly 30 students sat front and center as family and friends cheered them on from the pews of Washington AME Zion Church on Thursday, May 14.
Blackmon was a fitting keynote speaker because of the bond she shared with many graduating SLU seniors. Many were active participants in the protests that erupted in Ferguson as they were beginning their junior year of college, and then moved into the city and onto the campus of SLU.
“Not only did you show up in the class, but many of you showed up in the streets,” Blackmon said. “Not only did you show up in the books, but you showed up sharing banners that said ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The long nights of studying, the rigorous class schedules, the commitment to fully show up for class in the midst of struggles – and in the midst of a city that was erupting in protest. And whether you showed up in the front lines of Ferguson or the frontline of a classroom on Lindell, we salute you.”
A stole that read “Black Lives Matter” was draped across Blackmon’s robe as she delivered her address.
“I don’t know how many of you were involved in occupying Saint Louis University, but to this date, the agreements that came out of Saint Louis University between the protesters and the faculty – including your president – are the only concrete changes that we have received in Ferguson led by young people,” Blackmon said. “That is something to be proud of.”
African American Studies Program director Stefan Bradley, who often joined his students on the frontlines of Ferguson, nodded like a proud parent.
“It’s something to be proud of when people who didn’t get to be inside the gates [as students] show up and say, ‘We need to be seen’ and ‘we need to be helped,’ and meet someone inside the gates who says to them, ‘You are our guest’ and allow them to come on campus for their voices to be heard,” Blackmon said.
Blackmon reminded the graduates that, by virtue of their degrees, they are set apart.
“Even in the face of oppression and obstacles, you are still privileged – no matter how hard you worked to get it, no matter how many jobs you had to have, you are still among the privileged,” Blackmon said.
“That may be a difficult message to receive, as we observe all that has been and endured by black and brown bodies all over this nation and, indeed, in our region. We need you to use your privilege for purpose.”
Her message to them was to remain rooted in their community.
“It would be easy for you to go to law school and medical school and make the best of your education and talk about how you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps,” Blackmon said. “It would be easy to act like we don’t understand the complications and complexities that can keep an entire body of people oppressed.”
That, she said, would be easy, but cowardly.
“That is what it means to try to hide so that no one notices you,” she said. “We need you. We need you to use the strength of your voice.”
