Isabel Wilkerson Instagram – A thrill to deliver the commencement address on the idyllic campus of Occidental College (where a young undergraduate named Barack Obama once studied), and then to make The Guardian’s list of the best graduation speeches of the year, along with Oprah (Tennessee State), Tom Hanks (Harvard) and other luminaries.
That joyous day, I was stunned when graduates broke into spontaneous applause at the very mention of “The Warmth of Other Suns” during Professor Erica Ball’s formal introduction of me, as shown in photo 3. She teaches a course about the Great Migration, and told me that students so love Warmth that it brings them to tears of human connection. To beloved fans of the book who say over and over again that it needs to be taught in the schools…. it thankfully is, and this is the heartwarming result.
The Class of 2023 was still recovering from the unimaginable disruption of their college lives. They were suddenly scattered and isolated their freshman year in the early days of the pandemic and didn’t return to campus for another year and a half. For all that they had been through, I told them, as I began my address, “You deserve this day to celebrate all that you have sacrificed, and all that you have accomplished.” I asked them to give themselves a hand, and, giddily, they did.
I urged everyone to connect to our country’s true history, and so, at one point, as shown in photo 1, I asked people to raise their hand if they knew anyone born before 1965. Nearly every hand went up, with laughter and nods of recognition, at which point I said, “Then you know someone born before our country became a true democracy.” That was the year of the Voting Rights Act. This is not ancient history. It’s living history. And it is time we learn from it.
Deepest gratitude to President Harry Elam and to Occidental College for the honorary degree, for the standing ovations, and for the love. And grateful to The Guardian for the honor of their recognition.
#commencement #occidentalcollege #isabelwilkerson #thewarmthofothersuns | Posted on 02/Jun/2023 22:11:27
