In his commencement address to Howard University’s (HU) Class of 2023, President Joe Biden sparked excitement among the graduates and their families when he recognized HU’s legacy of excellence and called the historically Black university “the soul of the nation.”
His charge to graduates on Saturday was to follow in the footsteps of their fellow alumni to advance the cause of racial equity and tackle the issues that, several decades after HU’s founding, continue to affect Black people’s quality of life in the United States.
“What is the soul of the nation? The essence of who we are. The soul makes us us. The soul of America, which makes us unique among all nations. The only nation founded on an idea, not geography, religion or ethnicity,” Biden said in his commencement address on Saturday.
“The single prophecy in the Declaration of Independence that we’re all created equal. We never totally lived up to that promise but never walked away from it,” Biden continued. “America hasn’t been a fairy tale. It’s been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years. It’s a battle that’s never really over. To stand up to white supremacy, the domestic terrorist threat to our homeland.”
Not all students embraced Biden’s message. As Biden spoke, some graduates stood up and turned their back to the president. Some of them held up signs that said “Black people stand up, fight back.”
Students who mentioned the protest on social media expressed skepticism about Biden’s intentions to address white settler colonialism. They also incited calls to challenge what they described as the U.S. government’s collusion with HU to oppress Black people abroad.
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