For weeks, student protesters in Atlanta and beyond demonstrating in support of Gaza’s civilians have been characterized homogeneously in the media as pampered, mostly white, rich kids.
On Sunday, a 50-year-old Black woman who teaches at an all-male historically Black college turned that framing on its head. Those who have watched Sunday’s commencement at Morehouse College would recognize Dr. Taura Taylor as the woman standing and raising her fist while turning her back to President Joe Biden during his address. Taylor has been an associate professor of sociology at Morehouse for three years, the kind of job that typically wouldn’t land you in the spotlight during an election year presidential commencement speech.
But as the campus protests have shown, the temperature on college campuses has changed even since the tumult of 2020. And Taylor’s gesture made it clear that Black Atlanta University Center Consortium students, alumni, and faculty from all walks of life have been speaking out against the U.S. government’s role in the Gaza humanitarian crisis since it began.
“Many of his recent actions and his track record — including his track record with Black people and Black men and policing — do not align with me,” Taylor said of Biden on Sunday afternoon. “It’s unfortunate because Biden has been the better choice of the two [primary] choices that we have [for president]. There’s just these moments where you also have to call someone to task for their responsibility.”
Taylor told Capital B Atlanta later the same day that she was one of many Morehouse faculty members who, like many students, have opposed Biden being the commencement speaker and receiving an honorary Morehouse degree since the news was announced in April, due to his ongoing support for sending billions in military aid to Israel amid the Gaza war.
Taylor and others at Morehouse believe Biden’s stance on the war is inconsistent with the school’s social justice values. The school’s president, David Thomas, has faced criticism from some on campus for appearing to contradict those values. Thomas recently told CNN that silent and nondisruptive protests would be allowed, but he would end the commencement “on the spot” if those protests became unruly or disruptive during Biden’s address.
“What we won’t allow is disruptive behavior that prevents the ceremony or services from proceeding in a manner that those in attendance can partake and enjoy,” Thomas said.
That didn’t happen, but students and faculty found other ways to make their point.
Morehouse’s 2024 valedictorian, DeAngelo Fletcher, invoked Martin Luther King Jr. — also a Morehouse alumnus — in his address that challenged Biden to end the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war. Some students turned their back during Biden’s speech. Others draped the keffiyeh, a Black and white scarf associated with Palestinians, over their shoulders.
Congo solidarity protests
Some who attended Sunday’s graduation ceremony also showed solidarity with people suffering in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), echoing views expressed by many on social media that Black college students should be just as concerned about the plight of other Black people around the world as they are about Palestinians.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, but millions more have died in the Congo since the nation’s first civil war broke out in 1996. Cobalt and other minerals mined in the Congo are commonly used in smartphones and computers that make billions for Silicon Valley tech titans.
Taylor wore a DRC pin on her cap during her protest on Sunday. Two fellow Morehouse professors were on stage behind Biden when they unfurled a Congolese flag seen on camera during the president’s address.
Witnesses later identified the faculty member as Africana studies professor Sam Livingston and Cynthia Hewitt, who couldn’t be reached for comment on Sunday.
Morehouse seniors sound off on Biden
The Gaza conflict has taken on added importance in the minds of Black college students at the AUC and elsewhere amid a presidential election cycle in which support for Biden has dwindled among the young, many of whom disagree with his stance on the war in Gaza.
Morehouse graduating seniors who spoke with Capital B Atlanta on Sunday expressed mixed feelings about Biden delivering their commencement address.
Winston Brown, 21, was one of a few who praised Biden’s remarks about the history of Morehouse men like Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggles Black people often face in the United States.
“I really appreciate him for knowing most of the history when it came down to Morehouse, and for making sure that he made the world understand that being Black in America is not the easiest thing in the world,” Brown said.
Others, like Mekhi Harris, 21, characterized the commencement address as a campaign photo opp for a president struggling to rally the same level of Black support that helped him secure a 2020 White House win.
“Honestly, I do feel like there could have been better candidates that could have been selected for our commencement,” Harris said.
Graduating senior Omar Kaba also disagreed with Biden being the commencement speaker. Both he and Harris declined to turn their back on the president during his address, but they made their voices heard by remaining mostly silent during Biden’s speech, which he confessed was “better than I expected.”
“Ultimately, we knew that it was gonna be a campaign speech,” Kaba told Capital B Atlanta. “But I think he did a surprisingly good job of still including us in that message.”
