Courtesy of Spelman College
Spelman College announced today, plans to hold the College’s 2023 Baccalaureate Ceremony on Saturday, May 20, 2023, 10:00 a.m. (ET), at the Georgia International Convention Center. The guest speaker is Reverend Traci Blackmon, associate general minister of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, will deliver the keynote address to graduates during Spelman College’s 2023 Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. She will also receive a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. Tracee Ellis Ross, award-winning actress and producer, and CEO and Founder of PATTERN Beauty will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts. The ceremony will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, GA.
The Class of 2023 includes 473 degree candidates, receiving 298 Bachelor of Arts and 175 Bachelor of Science degrees, and four valedictorians, a salutatorian and many high-achieving graduates from across the country.
Class of 2023 Co-Valedictorians and Salutatorian and Majors
Maya Blasingame, Co-Valedictorian, Biology
Amaia Calhoun, Co-Valedictorian, Economics
Sydney DuPree, Co-Valedictorian, Theatre and Performance
Chandler Nutall, Co-Valedictorian, English
Maya Phillips, Salutatorian, Sociology
Class of 2023 Top Ten Scholars
Maya Blasingame, Co-Valedictorian, Biology
Amaia Calhoun, Co-Valedictorian, Economics
Sydney DuPree, Co-Valedictorian, Theatre and Performance
Chandler Nutall, Co-Valedictorian, English
Maya Phillips, Salutatorian, Sociology
Annaya Baynes, English
Kayla Bowman, Psychology
Alexandra Jenkins, Economics
Jesseca Lindsey, Spanish
Adrianna Richardson, Biology
2023 Baccalaureate Speaker
As the associate general minister of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ, Rev. Blackmon is responsible for the implementation of the domestic justice and advocacy initiatives of the denomination, as well as the education and resourcing of more than 5,000 churches from a denominational perspective.
As a public theologian and featured voice on many regional, national, and international platforms, Rev. Blackmon’s life work focuses on communal resistance to systemic injustice. Her response in Ferguson to the killing of Michael Brown resulted in national and international recognition, gaining her many audiences spanning the breadth of the White House to the Carter Center to the Vatican. She is a pastor at heart and has had the joy of serving two congregations: Simpson Chapel African Methodist Church and Christ The King United Church of Christ. Currently, Rev. Blackmon serves as Pastor in Residence for Eden Theological Seminary.
Featured in several publications and documentaries, Rev. Blackmon’s insightful analysis of socio-political challenges through a theological lens resulted in her listing as one of St. Louis’ 100 most influential voices. Appointed to the Ferguson Commission by Governor Jay Nixon and to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships for the White House by President Barack Obama, Rev. Blackmon is a recipient of the NAACP Rosa Parks Award; The Urban League of St. Louis Woman in Leadership Award; and the National Planned Parenthood Faith Leader Award, to name a few. Rev. Blackmon is also one of Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 and is a featured writer in several Justice publications. Rev. Blackmon is a graduate of Leadership St. Louis and currently serves on the boards of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and the World Parliament of Religions. She was also named the 2017 Citizen of the Year by The St. Louis American.
Rev. Blackmon divides her time between St. Louis, MO, and Cleveland, OH, and is the proud mother of three adult children: Kortni Devon; Harold II; and Tyler Wayne Blackmon.
2023 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient
Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius grant, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times.
She also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Hannah-Jones is also the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which seeks to increase the number of investigative reporters and editors of color, and in 2022 she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, afterschool literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. Hannah-Jones holds a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her Bachelor of Arts in History and African American studies from the University of Notre Dame.
2023 Honorary Degree Recipient
Tracee Ellis Ross, award-winning actress and producer, and CEO and Founder of PATTERN Beauty will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts. Ross is an award-winning actress and producer best known for her roles in ABC’s award-winning comedy series “Black-ish” and “Girlfriends.” For her role as Rainbow Johnson in “Black-ish,” as a comedic leading actress, Ross won the Golden Globe Award in 2017 as well as nine NAACP Image Awards.
She was nominated for five Emmys and two Critics Choice Awards. Ross is the CEO and Founder of PATTERN Beauty, an award-winning haircare brand she launched in 2019 for the curly, coily and tight textured masses.
Ross is executive producer and narrator of “The Hair Tales,” a docuseries about Black women, beauty and identity through the distinctive lens of Black hair. It debuted on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s cable channel and on Hulu in October 2022. Ross recently produced a ten-episode podcast, I Am America, which aims to break through the noise during this divided time in our country in an effort to create space and to heal. Ross will star in and executive produce the animated MTV Entertainment Studios film “Jodie,” a spinoff of MTV’s iconic “Daria” franchise.
