Less than two weeks before graduation day, students at South Carolina State University learned that a MAGA-supporting politician had been invited to speak at their upcoming commencement ceremony.
The students wasted no time in taking their grievances about South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to the school’s president and provost. Three days after the news spread, the invitation was rescinded.
The decision might prove to be a costly victory for the students, however. A small group of Republicans within the South Carolina statehouse is now calling for the state to defund the HBCU.
Evette, who is running for South Carolina’s governor, was one of the Republicans who sided with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on college campuses. In February, she also defended Trump’s AI-generated video of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes, deflecting the blame on the media.
After the invitation was rescinded, Evette responded quickly on social media.
“I must be doing something right because woke mobs are coming after me for being a champion of eliminating radical DEI scams on college campuses,” Evette posted on X on April 28.
Capital B reached out to Evette’s team for comment, but was directed to her social media post due to time constraints.
The HBCU’s decision comes at a time when tensions between conservative voices and those at other universities continue to rise on campuses across the South. Over the past several months, Republicans have introduced several pieces of legislation and mandates that directly impact funding and voting on Black college campuses, sparking a series of protests at Kentucky State University, Florida A&M University, and North Carolina A&T State University. Like the students at South Carolina State, HBCUs have not gone down without a fight, winning some battles and losing others.
In 2023, South Carolina State was among several HBCUs the Biden administration flagged as underfunded by the state, with an estimated shortfall nearing $500 million, according to The State, a local outlet.
Students take action
Senior journalism major Kimora Aiken said she found out about Evette’s invitation Monday when she saw a petition on Instagram urging the administration to cancel the ceremony scheduled for May 8.
Inviting Evette “was a slap in the face,” said Aiken, who struggled to understand why the university would choose the lieutenant governor as the speaker.
Kameron Sutton, a sophomore criminal justice major from Decatur, Georgia, said that when he saw the news on his timeline, he knew that passion was needed to convey how serious the student body was about not having Evette speak at commencement. That’s when he asked the student government president to record a video talking about what’s going on.
From there, several students began planning a series of protests and were inspired by South Carolina State students in the 1960s who protested Civil Rights Era injustices.
The students spent more than 24 hours earlier this week protesting Evette’s invitation. On Monday, they staged a silent sit-in outside the president’s office. Later, students began marching throughout the campus plaza, video of which has since gone viral on several social media platforms.
Alexander Conyers, the university president, sent an email to students Wednesday evening announcing that Evette’s invitation had been canceled. Shortly after, he joined the students to deliver the news in person. The university cited safety concerns for the cancellation of the invitation.
“His first time addressing us was not good enough,” Sutton said. “That was the point of the protest, and for him, that when I heard those words, a sigh of relief came over my body, a wave of understanding came over my body.”
The university has not publicly announced another speaker and didn’t respond to a Capital B request for comment.
Josh Singleton, a graduating senior and one of Aiken’s friends, was among some of the graduating seniors organizing the protest. For him, it wasn’t the party affiliation that bothered him. It was the morality of having someone who has openly supported immigration crackdown through detention centers and anti-Black rhetoric, he said.
“When it came down to the planning, it was really the video of her saying we’re a mob and radicals,” Aiken said. “That really sparked the rest of the student body.”
Singleton said he’s not letting Evette and other political figures get in the way of his class’ graduation celebration. He’s been telling his classmates to block out the noise, especially since it’s not going to be the first time people use words to get under their skin as Black people.
“They’ll call us every hateful comment but a child of God,” he said.
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