The Chronicle's March 5 editorial on the selection of Charlayne Hunter-Gault as this year's commencement speaker postulates that "the speech should be memorable not only for its message, but doubly so for its deliverer." Sadly, the characterization of Hunter-Gault as a "no-name speaker" reveals far more about the ignorance of The Chronicle than it does about Hunter-Gault.
Having watched her career over the years and hearing her speak on several occasions, I know Hunter-Gault is a first-rate and often inspiring speaker. It is perhaps understandable that a person born in or shortly after 1980 might not fully appreciate Hunter-Gault's historic and courageous role as one of the two black students to integrate the University of Georgia in the early 1960s when bricks and bottles were thrown through her dormitory windows and police were required to ensure her safety on a daily basis.
But it is incomprehensible that The Chronicle could be so unappreciative of the power of her many accomplishments as a path-breaking journalist: She was the first black person on the staff of The New Yorker, perhaps the most respected magazine of its genre over the last 50 years; for nine years she served as a reporter and then as a bureau chief for The New York Times; her 19 years with the award-winning McNeil-Lehrer Report on PBS included 13 years as that program's national correspondent; her receipt of both of the highest honors a broadcast journalist can receive-two George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in journalism (the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and a national news and documentary Emmy Award. We're not talking about chopped liver, folks!
The editorial was right on one issue: Duke's graduates and their families deserve to hear from a speaker who is both a person of substance and an excellent speaker. If those are the criteria that should govern the University's choice of a commencement speaker, then Hunter-Gault more than passes muster. If Hunter-Gault was good enough for Nelson Mandela to select her as one of only two correspondents from around the world to receive an extended interview with him following his release from prison, I suppose she's probably good enough to be a commencement speaker at Duke. Unless, of course, our society's passion for celebrity is what today's generation of Duke students is all about.
John Burness
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs and
Government Relations
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