Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, will be the keynote speaker at Johnson C. Smith University’s 2018 graduation ceremony, scheduled for May 20 at Bojangle’s Coliseum.
The university made the announcement Tuesday, while also announcing that the Rev. Alyn E. Waller of Philadelphia, Pa., will speak at this year’s baccalaureate service on May 18. Waller, senior pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, also is a renowned revivalist, vocalist and lecturer. The baccalaureate service is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Jane M. Smith Memorial Church on the JCSU campus.
Morial, who has led the Urban League since 2003, was a University of Pennsylvania classmate to JCSU President Clarence Armbrister. The two men also are fraternity brothers.
The graduation ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. The school will award about 235 undergraduate degrees and 38 degrees for masters in social work.
By moving graduation ceremonies to Bojangle’s Coliseum, JCSU returns to a tradition that ended when the school’s former president, Ronald Carter, moved the ceremony to McGirt Field on campus.
