HARLEM--They were there because they wanted to be, not because they had to be.
Fifty-five Columbia University graduates - all black, though multihued - gathered in the foyer of a chapel at Union Theological Seminary, located across the street from the school they'll refer to as alma mater following the next day's commencement. That night, however, they came together to celebrate Black Graduation, a tradition university officials say started in the late 1970's.
The students walked (some danced) into the chapel for the processional to Cameo's 1987 R&B hit, 'Candy,' as a slideshow of pictures from their campus years played on a mounted projector. The ceremony was filled with music, award presentations, dedications and speeches focused on a group of students who bonded over not just their university experience, university experience as black students. Even the ceremony's theme, 'Success By Any Means Necessary' - a nod to the phrase popularized by Malcolm X - was rooted in black culture.
Jana Johnson, a 22-year-old psychology major from Tulsa, Oklahoma, took the stage to welcome friends, family and peers. "These are the people who've been the crutch of our support system," Johnson said. "We've all been away from family and it can be stressful here, so we've had each other."
Separate black graduation ceremonies have become commonplace at colleges and high schools across the country. The Mitchell Kapor Foundation will hold its College Bound Brotherhood Graduation on June 8, a ceremony that started in 2008 and honors African-American male graduates throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Princeton University began its Pan-African Graduation ceremony in 2006 and will hold theirs on June 1. And the University of Pennsylvania started its Makuu Senior Celebration, an awards ceremony where the students are given leadership awards named after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, among others, in 2001.
But given that some are quick to claim we're living in a "post-racial" era, and our president is a black man, these types of ceremonies have been viewed by many as unnecessary. Some might point to their low turnout as proof. At Columbia's Black Graduation, there 55 students, but almost 200 were listed in the program as not in attendance. If just a fraction the school's black students participate, why hold black-only graduation ceremonies at all?
Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin, the keynote speaker at Columbia's Black Graduation, posed the same question in her speech. But then reminded the audience that black graduation ceremonies are not so much a race-based mandate as they are a way to celebrate segments of student life. "It doesn't mean that they're separatist, " Griffin said.
Black students are not the only contingency that believes in holding separate commencement ceremonies. Columbia's Office of Multicultural Affairs works in conjunction with Latino, Asian and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) student populations to coordinate ceremonies of their own. As a recognized office within Columbia's Student Affairs department, OMA provides each group with a budget for its ceremony and a faculty advisor to assist students.
For this year's Black Graduation, the budget was $6,000, which helped Johnson and her planning committee with expenses that included the customized Black Graduation sashes students draped around their shoulders, catering and the cost of securing a venue. One expense the planning committee did not have to incur: the gift given to all the students who participated in the ceremony.
With the assistance of Columbia's Black Alumni Council, each student was given a copy of 'Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention,' the voluminous tome written by Manning Marable, founding director of African-American Studies at Columbia and director of Columbia's Center for Contemporary Black History, who died in April.
Marable was originally scheduled to deliver the ceremony's keynote address - instead, his name appeared in the program as such: "In Loving Memory of Professor Manning Marable." During the ceremony, graduates Terrell Winder and Hank Oliver sang Donny Hathaway's 'Someday We'll All Be Free' in tribute to the Marable, with a slideshow backdrop memorializing the beloved author, activist and author.
Although Marable played a critical role in diversifying Columbia's curriculum, there was no special mention of him at the school-wide commencement the next day, according to a university spokesperson. For Johnson and the others who gathered at Union Theological Seminary the night before, the noticeable omission helped legitimate the need for affinity groups to have separate ceremonies. "It's something that's very relevant today in a less overt way," Johnson said. "It's OK for people to have things they can come together on with people like themselves to celebrate their own accomplishments."