Former NAACP leader asks graduates to finish the
work of civil rights activists

About 560 undergraduates heard the May 8 commencement address by Elaine Jones, the former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Jones has worked in the legal arm of the civil rights movement for 32 years. Her appearance capped off a semester-long campus initiative commemorating the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended public school segregation.

Jones said the Brown case was just the beginning in terms of current educational access in America. “The U.S., which will have a 47 percent minority population in the next 50 years and is overly incarcerating its citizens, is making education a commodity. We say the quality of education depends on the money that you have, if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, you don’t get it. That is not in our national interest. For the U.S. to be competitive, we have got to educate all of the kids.”

Jones also extolled the benefits of diversity in relation to the workforce. She pointed to the recent brief to the U.S. Supreme Court from 65 Fortune 500 and multinational companies. “This is what they told the Supreme Court about diversity. They said if you are educated in a diverse setting, you are more likely to succeed. Folks educated in a cross-cultural environment facilitate unique and creative approaches to problem solving and the integration of different perspectives. Racially diverse managers with cross-cultural experience are better able to work with business partners, employees and clientele in the United States and around the world. Finally, they said, when you come to the corporations, they expect you to know certain things about how to deal with people that don’t look like you.”

She challenged students to promote positive change in the United States. “Winthrop, we gave you Brown. . . . We gave you a civil rights movement that has done a great deal for equality, but there is more work to be done because you have to make sure that the United States is still competitive 30 years from now. You’ve got to help draw up the blueprint and the plan and look at the large picture.”

 

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