COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS
Diversity of HBCU speakers in upcoming
commencements
BY CASH MICHAELS
FOR THE CHRONICLE
Once again, black fam
ilies in the Triad and
Triangle that have students
graduating from historical
ly black colleges and uni
versities (HBCUs) are
preparing for May com
mencement exercises,
where leaders in the fields
of business, education,
politics and entertainment
come to deliver keynote
addresses to new graduates
about the world that awaits
them, and how they should
handle it.
Winston-Salem State
University’s 2017
Commencement, sched
uled for Bowman Gray
Stadium on Saturday, May
19 at 9:45 a.m. will feature
noted attorney and CNN
political commentator
Bakari Sellers as the
keynote speaker.
He made history in
2006 as the youngest
African American elected
official in the nation. At
age 22, Sellers defeated a
26-year incumbent state
representative to become
the youngest member of
the South Carolina State
Legislature, serving from
Higginbotham
2006-14. In 2014, he was
the Democratic nominee
for South Carolina lieu
tenant governor. More
recently, he has served as a
political commentator and
analyst for CNN and
MSNBC.
His father is civil rights
leader and educator Dr.
Cleveland Sellers.
Sellers practices law
with the Strom Law Firm
in Columbia, South
Carolina. He is married to
Dr. Ellen Rucker-Sellers.
The ceremony will rec
ognize more than 1,200
graduates who received
their degrees during sum
mer and fall 2016 and
spring 2017.This includes:
*More than 1,100
undergraduates.
*129 graduates (mas
ter’s and doctoral).
♦Three post
graduate certificates.
The ceremony will be
held, weather permitting,
at Bowman Gray Stadium.
The rain location is
Winston-Salem’s
Lawrence Joel Veterans
Memorial Coliseum. For
those who cannot attend,
the ceremony will be live
streamed on WSSU’s web
site: www.wssu.edu.
At Bennett College in
Greensboro, a familiar face
will deliver the com
mencement address on
Saturday, May 6. U.S. Rep.
Alma Adams (D-12- NC),
who had previously taught
art at the all-female HBCU
for over 40 years, will be
speaking during the 10
a.m. ceremony on the cam
pus quadrangle. Rep.
Adams formerly served in
Morgan
Mitchell
the N.C. House for
many years, before being
elected to Congress in
2014. She will speak at 10
a.m. in The Quadrangle on
the Bennett campus.
Visitors are also wel
comed at Baccalaureate
Exercises, which begin at 7
p.m. on May 5 inside the
Annie Memer Pfeiffer
Chapel on campus. The
Rev. Dr. Daran H.
Mitchell, senior pastor of
Trinity African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church
and President of The Pulpit
Forum of Greensboro, will
deliver the Baccalaureate
address.
In the event of
inclement weather,
Commencement will be
held inside the Annie
Memer Pfeiffer Chapel on
Bennett’s campus.
A few miles away on
Saturday, May 13, N.C.
Agricultural and Technical
State University will wel
come undefeated boxing
champion, author and TV
hostess Laila Ali, daughter
of legendary champion
Muhammad Ali, as the
keynote speaker during the
main commencement cere
mony, beginning at 8:30
a.m. at the Greensboro
Coliseum Complex.
Ms. Ali, bom in 1977
to her father and Veronica
Porsche Ali, began her
boxing career at the age of
18, turning pro at age 22.
She retired undefeated
after eight years with a
record of 24-0. Her world
renowned father died less
than a year ago at age 74.
In Durham, the 2017
Spring Commencement for
North Carolina Central
University (NCCU) under
graduates in O’Kelly
Riddick Stadium on
Saturday, May 13 at 8 a.m.
will feature retired astro
naut Joan Higginbotham.
She spent 308 hours in
space during the Space
Shuttle Discovery mission
in 2006, making her the
third African-American
woman ever to travel in
space. Currently she is a
Lowes Companies Inc.
executive and serves on the
NCCU Board of Trustees.
On Friday evening
May 12, Justice Mike
Morgan of the N.C.
Supreme Court will
address the NCCU
Graduate and Professional
Commencement
Ceremony in McDougald
McLendon Arena. Justice
Morgan is an alumnus of
the NCCU School of Law.
Nationally syndicated
radio host Tom Joyner will
be the keynoter for Shaw
University’s 2017
Commencement exercises
Saturday, May 13 at the
Raleigh Convention
Center starting at 10 a.m.
Chronicle reports con
tributed to this report.
Historian Jon Meacham to deliver
2017 Commencement Address at WFU
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE_
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and pres
idential historian Jon Meacham will deliv
er Wake Forest University’s commence
ment address on Monday, May 15.
Wake Forest’s commencement cere
mony is a ticketed event reserved for grad
uates, their families and guests and is not
open to the public. The ceremony takes
place on Hearn Plaza at 9 a.m.
A livestream webcast of the ceremony
will be available at go.wfu.edu/wful7.
Meacham is the author of highly
acclaimed biographies of Thomas
Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and George
H.W. Bush.
Meacham’s most recent book,
“Destiny and Power: The American
Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,”
became a #1 New York Times bestseller. In
2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his
bestseller “American Lion: Andrew
Jackson in the White House.” His
other national bestsellers include:
“Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power,”
“Franklin and Winston: An Intimate
Portrait of an Epic Friendship”
and “American Gospel: God, the Founding
Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.”
Meacham is currently at work on a
biography of James and Dolley Madison.
“Jon Meacham has the ability to ana
lyze contemporary politics through the
eyes of an historian," said Wake Forest
University President Nathan O.
Hatch. "There is no better time for us to
understand and appreciate how the past
informs our future. We are honored he will
deliver Wake Forest's commencement
address."
A member of the Council on Foreign
Relations and of the Society of American
Historians, Meacham is a distinguished
visiting professor at Vanderbilt University
and at The University of the South. He is a
contributing editor at TIME magazine, a
contributing writer to The New York
Times Book Review and a former execu
tive editor at Random House.
A commentator on politics, history and
religious faith in America, Meacham is
also a regular
guest on
MSNBC’s
“Morning
Joe,”
“Charlie
Rose” and
other broad
casts.
Meacham
was the editor
of Newsweek
Meacham from 2006 to
2010. He is a
former editor of The Washington Monthly
and began his journalism career at The
Chattanooga Times. Meacham chairs the
National Advisory Council of the John C.
Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
at Washington University.
A livestream webcast of the ceremony
will be available at go.wfu.edu/wful7.
Baccalaureate information
Also joining Wake Forest for the com
mencement weekend will be
Baccalaureate speaker Kathy “Killian”
Noe (’80), founder of the Recovery Cafd in
Seattle, Washington. She was awarded
Wake Forest University’s Distinguished
Alumni Award in 2015 and was featured in
the Spring 2017 issue of Wake Forest
Magazine.
Baccalaureate will take place Sunday,
May 14, at 9 a.m. in Wait Chapel. Like
commencement, baccalaureate is a ticket
ed event reserved for graduates, their fam
ilies and guests and is not open to the gen
eral public.
A livestream webcast of the service
will be available
at http://go.wfu.edu/baccl7.
As the founding director of Recovery
Cafd and co-founder of Samaritan Inns in
Washington, D.C., she’s helped thousands
of people rebuild shattered lives. The
Recovery Cafe model has been replicated
in five other cities and efforts are under
way to launch Recovery Cafds nationwide.
Prolific actor and
alumnus Tim Guinee
to speak at UNCSA
high school graduation
SPECIAL TO
THE CHRONICLE
Alumnus Tim Guinee, a
prolific actor with more
than 300 stage, television
and film roles to his credit,
will be the speaker for High
School Commencement at
the University of North
Carolina School of the Arts
(UNCSA).
He will speak to 120
graduates and their families
in a ceremony at 10 a.m. on
Saturday, May 13 at the
Stevens Center in down
town Winston-Salem.
Commencement is not
open to the public.
‘Tim Guinee’s varied
and impressive career illus
trates an important message
for our graduates: Your
arts-based education will
take you wherever you
want to go,” said
Chancellor Lindsay
Bierman. “As they head off
to college or to begin their
careers, our high school
graduates will carry his
words of inspiration, along
with our very best wishes.”
Known for his dramatic
range, Guinee graduated
Guinee
from UNCSA in 1985 and
made his feature film debut
the next year as Cullum
Struan in the epic “Tai
Pan.”
His theatre work
includes “SubUrbia” at
Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, “Richard
II” (directed by Joseph
Papp) and “Twelfth Night”
at the New York
Shakespeare Festival.
Some of his more rec
ognized film work includes
characters in “Sweet Land”
(winner, Film Independent
Spirit Award), Ramin
Bahrani’s “99 Homes,”
“Iron Man 1” and “Iron
Man 2,” “Personal
Velocity,” “Promised
Land,” “Synecdoche New
York,” and “Courage
Under Fire.”
He was in visionary
French director Rachid
Bouchareb’s two most
recent films, “Just Like a
Woman” and “Two Men in
Town.”
On television he was a
series regular on AMC’s
western “Hell Oil Wheels”
(with UNCSA alumna
Jennifer Ferrin) and has
recurred on many programs
including “Homeland,”
“The Good Wife,”
“Elementary,” “Bones,”
“Revolution,” “24,” and
“Strange World.”
Guinee has directed
theatre and film, including
the multiple award-winning
short, “One Armed Man.”
He has lived and/or
worked on every continent
except for Antarctica.
For more information,
visit www.uncsa.edu.
www.wschronicle.com
< •
Utilities commissioner
to speak at Forsyth
Tech commencement
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Commissioner Lyons Gray, North
Carolina Utilities Commission and former
N.C. Secretary of Revenue, will speak at
Forsyth Tech Graduation 5 pm, Tuesday,
May 9 at Lawrence Joel Veterans
Memorial Coliseum, 2825 University
Parkway.
About 1,160 Forsyth Tech students
will receive associate degrees, certificates
and diplomas that signify completion of
their programs of study during the 2017
commencement exercises.
Forsyth Tech provides students with
flexible educational pathways to a com
petitive workforce for the community and
global economy. The college offers associ
ate degrees, diplomas, and certificates in
more than 200 programs of study, includ
ing programs that promote personal and
professional development through non
credit courses and seminars, as well as
customized training for business and
industry.
Forsyth Tech is the fifth largest com
munity college in North Carolina and
serves more than 35,000 students with
approximately 1,500 full and part-time
faculty and staff.
New principal chosen for
The Downtown School
SPECIAL TO
THE CHRONICLE
Andrew Lester-Niles
will be the new principal at
the Downtown School.
Lester-Niles served as
principal at Vienna
Elementary School since
2015. Prior to that, he was
the assistant principal at
Brunson Elementary
School, starting there in
2003. He also served as a
Principal Fellow Intern at
Vienna Elementary and
Wiley Middle School, a
supervisor of Student
Teachers at The University
of North Carolina at
'N
Greensboro, and was an
Exceptional Children’s
Teacher at Whitaker
Elementary School.
Lester-Niles earned a
bachelor’s degree in
Special Education from
Appalachian State
University, and a master’s
degree from The University
of North Carolina at
Greensboro.
Lester-Niles replaces
Jan Atkinson, who is retir
ing at the end of this school
year. Atkinson has been
with the district for 34
years, 20 years as the prin
cipal at the Downtown
School.
Andrew Lester-Niles
/