We must protect our historically Black universities and colleges, including FAMU | Opinion

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled with my godchildren Troy and Cecily Robinson Duffie to Marshall, Texas, for the graduation ceremony of Trinity, their fifth and last child to graduate college.

The ceremony took place on the lawn of the historic Wiley University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) established in 1873 — just 10 years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Wiley, founded by the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was established to allow “Negro youth the opportunity to pursue higher learning in the arts, sciences and other professions,” according to the university’s history.

While we celebrated the milestone in Trinity’s life and the history of Wiley, to me it was a celebration of yet another kind, a celebration of Black History.

Graduation day was picture-postcard perfect. There wasn’t a cloud in the cornflower blue sky and the air had a slight chill, just cool enough to keep us comfortable. As we took our seats among the hundreds of other parents and friends of the graduates, the sound of drumming could be heard, as a dancer performed a ceremonial dance, signaling it was time for the dignitaries, faculty members and the graduates to march into the ceremony.

The night before, we attended a baccalaureate service where there was old-fashioned preaching and music from the university’s a cappella choir.

So, on this graduation morning, I sat, like a wide-eyed child, anticipating more of what I call a traditional Black graduating ceremony with bits and pieces of our history told in songs (mainly Negro spirituals) and a soul-stirring speech from the designated speaker. I wasn’t disappointed.

But as I watched these latest graduates proudly walk across the stage and into a new world that awaited them, students, faculty and alums in Tallahassee were opposing what they consider a threat to Black history and the history of Florida A&M University. The threat is the potential appointment of Marva Johnson as the university’s next president.

As of Wednesday, nearly 11,500 people, including current students, alumni, faculty and HBCU supporters nationwide, signed a petition opposing Johnson’s appointment, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. She is one of four finalists.

At a meet-and-greet session for Johnson Wednesday night in the university’s grand ballroom, the crowd, including FAMU alum and Hollywood producer Will Packer, angrily opposed her candidacy, the Democrat reported.

The concerns centered on Johnson’s political allies — she has served in the administrations of both Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Gov. Rick Scott — and whether she has the academic credentials to lead FAMU. DeSantis has championed the Stop WOKE Act and other measures targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at universities.

Johnson’s educational credentials include a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University, a master’s of business administration from Emory University in Atlanta, and a law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law. She is a Black woman who has excelled in the corporate sector — she oversees the lobbying arm of Charter Communications, an internet and cable TV company.

Yet, I can understand the opposition against her.

We live in a crazy world where it is hard to trust some people, even when they look like me. We are fighting to keep our history — Black history — alive.

We first witnessed the blatant banning of books by Black authors — books that told our story, our history — a movement championed by DeSantis and his GOP allies in the Florida Legislature. Then President Donald Trump fired off orders eliminating DEI programs that guaranteed us a level playing field.

So, yes, it’s hard to trust a person who has ties with a governor who is determined to wipe Black history off the American history slate.

I still can’t understand the book banning. Not here in America. I realize that some of the stories in banned books are hard to read, even for some Blacks. But they are the stories of our history, America’s history, and they need to be preserved.

Johnson, a Tampa Bay native who met with FAMU’s board of trustees earlier Wednesday, tried to allay the crowd’s concerns Wednesday evening, saying she wasn’t sent to “dismantle FAMU,” the Democrat reported.

Florida A&M, Wiley University and other HBCUs across the country are the keepers of our history. They were founded during turbulent times for Blacks in America, and it’s important to have the right leadership at these fountainheads of knowledge and Black history.

Like many other early Black colleges and universities, Wiley opened its doors with “two frame buildings and an overwhelming desire to succeed in a climate fraught with racism and Jim Crow laws.”

So, there I sat on the lawn, part of Wiley’s 55 acres, surrounded by the ghosts of the forefathers and mothers who fought for future generations to have a piece of the American dream. Silently, I thanked them, the visionaries who against all odds gallantly fought a good fight to give HBCUs like Wiley a fighting chance.

It is because of them, and the generations who came after them, that I was able to sit and watch Baby Trinity walk across the stage as a college graduate.