Increasingly, young women are telling their stories of personal achievement so as to inspire others like them to overcome obstacles and realize their dreams. Ashley Williams, who received a master’s degree and a law degree from separate universities in the same week, is one of those women.
On Sunday, May 19th, 396 young men wore their caps and gowns and seemed not only optimistic as Robert F. Smith gave their school's 135th commencement address, but also burdened by the debt that financed their education. Smith, currently the richest black man in America, shocked the students with a surprise message. He pledged to pay all debts for Morehouse's entire 2019 graduating class.
It was a graduation ceremony like most others, featuring a grand display of pomp and circumstance. The graduates wore caps and gowns, and proud family members filled the audience. The only unusual aspect of this ceremony was that it took place at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in the town of Pacific, Missouri.
In 1869, when George Lewis Ruffin became the first Black Harvard Law School graduate and later went on to become the first African-America judge in Massachusetts, not many could've imagined the day when the law school would house over 60 students of color.
