On May 10, when Bethune-Cookman University—a historically Black university in Daytona Beach, Fla.—holds its spring commencement, the sendoff message to graduates will be delivered by Betsy DeVos, the vacuous secretary of education whose top priority is to dismantle and destroy public education. B-CU President Edison O. Jackson totally rejects the argument that inviting DeVos to speak is an insult to the B-CU community, and, most specifically, its founders.

On June 8, Medgar Evers College holds its commencement ceremony and its choice of keynote speaker, who also is to be conferred an honorary doctorate, is Hillary Clinton. The announcement has not yet been made publicly, but already there is a backlash against President Rudy Crew’s action. Like Jackson, Crew is adamant that the invitation to Clinton will stand, even though many regard Clinton and her shoddy history as completely inconsistent with those of the assassinated civil rights activist after whom the college is named.

Leid Stories discusses the political cord that connects both events.

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