The Delaware County Daily Times
Democratic U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina kicked off Cheyney University of Pennsylvania’s Presidential Lecture Series with a bang last Wednesday.
Clyburn took an auditorium full of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members on a national historic journey. The self-proclaimed history buff recalled key events, not necessarily the way all of America remembers them, but by the way, he said, it really was.
The author of “Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black,” an autobiography of his role in the civil rights movement and his climb to leadership, spoke candidly and passionately.
The Assistant Democratic Leader in the 114th Congress and No. 3 Democrat in the House, began by acknowledging that Cheyney was founded in 1837, 17 years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling, thus permitting slavery throughout the country. Ironically, he said, “that dreadful decision meant that a graduate from this school, even a professor from this school, traveling in a southern state, could have been subjected to slavery.” read more
