Virtual Conferring of Honorary Degrees
By Kevin F. O’Brien, S.J.
Remarks on the Conferral of Honorary Degrees of Honorable Jones Pichon ’73, J.D. ’76 and Joanne Hayes-White ’86.
One hundred years ago today, Congress passed the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This was not the first time, nor the last, that voting rights (or lack of such rights) would be addressed by amendment to the text of our Constitution. For example, in 1870, the 15th amendment decreed that the right to vote shall not be denied on the basis of race. In 1971, the 26th amendment extended the right to vote to those 18 years and older.
Our history has taught us that we must always keep working at rights. After 1870, the 15th Amendment was a legal guarantee against racial discrimination in the exercise of the franchise, but a series of laws, like literacy tests and identification requirements, made the exercise of the vote very difficult. Restrictive voting laws recently passed in some states continue the suppression of the right to vote for so many. And women today, one hundred years after the 19th Amendment’s passage, face daily realities of discrimination and devaluation.
Our newest alumnae today remind us that we have to keep working at rights. We need to embody them with persistence and courage. I can only imagine the insults and derogatory jokes our honorees faced along the way: the slights, dismissals, and overt misogyny and racism. But here they stand, proudly. They worked at it, making rights real for them and for others.
For our students, I ask you to follow their example. In the wake of the killings of George Floyd and other Black lives, many in our community have been exercising those very important 1st amendment rights “peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” You’ve marched. You’ve petitioned. In addition to these 1st amendment rights, one of the most important tools we have as citizens to change lives and enact reform is the right to vote, which Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights pioneer, called “almost sacred,” and Stacey Abrams in today’s New York Times called, “the ultimate power.”
Register to vote and then vote. Take on voter suppression by voting for people who want to unleash the awesome power of our democracy by expanding the electorate, not restricting it. To those in attendance today who are not students, I ask you to support them in these efforts.
Let us all find some way to serve our communities, as our honorees have done in the law and public service. They have made lives better. May we all follow their example, each in our own way. May we embrace the summons of a Jesuit education to serve the common good, advocate for the most vulnerable, and create a more just, gentle, sustainable, and welcoming world.