YEMAJA JUBILEE: Growing up, my parents valued education because they only went to the 5th grade.

So it was assumed for me that I would go to college, and where they wanted to send me was Virginia Union University, and I ended up going there.

But the reason why I applied to Longwood was because Miss Irma Blackwell was the superintendent over the Black schools and she told me, because my grades were so good, you don't need to- you need to go to Longwood and you are going to apply for Longwood College, at that time.

I applied to Longwood.

Well, when Miss Irma Blackwell and I got the letter back with my parents and everything they- it said that I wasn't accepted.

And Miss Irma Blackwell was not satisfied with that.

So she told me, she said, “Come with me.” She put me in her car.

We're going to go to Longwood and we were going to see, because you are in the top three of your class and I was a “A” student.

Were going to see why you didn't get accepted.

And I got in the car with her.

And so she sat me down in that hall, that bill hall where that dome thing is, she sat me there.

She went into the office, but when she came out and she told me you didn't get accepted because you were colored, that's the whole thing.

And then I got in the car and cried.

I cried!

Because that was a scar.

Im wondering, ‘Is something wrong with me?

What is this thing?

What is it, this thing?

I see all the other kids going around, but they were all white.

I didn't see any Black people.

But she said, “Because you were colored you did not get accepted.” I had to do something about this scar that I carried for years.

So what am I going to do about it?

Because it was still nagging at my inner self, I contacted the president of Longwood University's office.

I kept calling, and kept saying and kept making it known that this is where I am and this is what I had experienced and asked that I be given a Longwood honorary degree for what I had gone through.

TAYLOR REVELEY: It is a day to acknowledge history and fellowship together.

To honor sacrifice, to celebrate achievement and progress, and to recommit together to the work each of you in this room has undertaken of shaping a more perfect union for generations to come.

YEMAJA JUBILEE: And I had no idea that when I came to that ceremony, there were so many other people that were involved in getting honorary degrees.

FRANCIS “SKIP” GRIFFIN JR.: What Longwood is doing today is to simply say, ‘I see you.

I heard your crying.

I acknowledge your pain and trauma.

I appreciate all that you did in the name of justice for the preservation of one country.

You did it out of love, courage, and a sound mind.

And somebody saw you.

YEMAJA JUBILEE: My inquiries had spearheaded them doing what they were doing.

And I even felt even better then.

I mean, because I knew that I was being guided for a purpose and it wasn't just about me.

And I was overjoyed.

TAYLOR REVELEY: Given at Longwood University in Virginia this 19th day of May 2024, the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the 60th anniversary of Griffen v. Prince Edward County and the 185th year of the University.

Congratulations.

[clapping]