From the nation’s top law enforcement officer to the world’s first black female astronaut to Zimbabwe’s first billionaire, May marks the time when heavy hitters make their way to the Atlanta University Center. It is the time when administrators, families and friends all come together for the big weekends of caps, gowns and tassels. It is the time to pray, celebrate honorary degree recipients, commencement speakers, and the oh so important graduate.
Beginning Saturday, May 14, 2016, at 9 a.m., Spelman College will host Jonathan L. Walton, Ph.D., Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard Divinity School, as its baccalaureate speaker; Morehouse College will host the Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, on the same day at 3 p.m. Clark Atlanta University will hold its baccalaureate services Sunday, May 15, at 10 a.m. with the Rev. Yvette D. Massey, senior pastor of Central United Methodist Church will address the students.
Strive Masiyiwa, one of Africa’s most influential businessmen and Zimbabwe’s first billionaire, is Morehouse’s commencement speaker Sunday, May 15, at 8 a.m. Loretta E. Lynch, America’s top law enforcement officer and the nation’s first African-American female to hold the post of U.S. attorney general, is Spelman’s 3 p.m. commencement speaker on the same day. CAU’s commencement address is Monday, May 16, at 8 a.m., with Dr. Mae Jemison, physician, engineer, and the first African-American woman astronaut. Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, will serve as the Saturday, May 21, commencement speaker for the Morehouse School of Medicine graduating class.
For more information on AUC baccalaureate and commencement speakers in the AUC, see CAU, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College.
