Speakers – The Archive Alcove

Thurgood Marshall’s Commencement Address, 1954

On May 17^th, 1954, (seventy years ago) the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down racial segregation in public schools. Thurgood Marshall, had been the principle architect of the NAACP’s legal campaign to combat racial discrimination though the courts. Just a few weeks later, Thurgood Marshall arrived in Grinnell, to deliver the commencement address to the class of 1954, and to receive an honorary doctorate of Laws from the college (the first African-American to receive an honorary degree from Grinnell, or to deliver its commencement address). Marshall (pictured here at the commencement podium of Darby Gymnasium) delivered an important address, entitled “Race and Caste Distinctions: Effective Barriers to Education for Democracy,” that attracted national media attention, as seen in the NAACP press release (below).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, PBK Convocation, 1974

Grinnell’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has a tradition of hosting a convocation speaker at the end of each year, an event that also serves as a ceremony to recognize those students invited to join PBK and to celebrate the achievements of those who have won particular awards/prizes given out annually by the chapter. On May 6, 1974 (50 years ago, this week), a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the PBK convocation address, in Herrick Chapel, on the theme of “Equal Rights and Responsibilities for Men and Women as Constitutional Principle.” These pictures are from a class visit, on that trip, and a more informal discussion she held in the evening with students at the Forum lounge. In 1974, Ginsburg was serving as general counsel for the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and as a law professor at Columbia University.

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Thurgood Marshall’s Commencement at Grinnell

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, PBK Convocation, 1974