Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in a commencement speech Sunday at Morehouse College urged graduates to celebrate Black history in order to save it.
“History will save you, and help you save us,” he said in the commencement address to the historically Black college.
“Those who yearn to destroy history will not stop at our history – they will go after the history of those we know,” he said. That includes the Jewish, Asian and LGBTQ communities as well as women and girls, Moore said..
“I’m talking about everyone in this country who has been a part of the American story – and who are watching the stories of those who came before them wiped away,” Moore said.
Moore is the nation’s only sitting Black governor and his state’s first Black governor.
“While each of you worked hard to get here, this degree is not the product of your hard work alone,” Moore told the graduates. “As Black men in America, we know our present is the result of the fights, the struggles, and the victories of the past. We are here because of people who marched and prayed over generations… people who fought for you, but didn’t know you; People who didn’t know you, but believed in the hope of you; people who believed in the hope of you, but knew they’d never see those hopes realized in their own lifetimes.”
Moore himself is the product of these hopes, he said.
A year ago, he was polling at a mere 1 percent in a state that was the home of one of the the largest slave ports in America and throughout the 1900s saw some of the most horrific lynchings.
“The courage of leaders and thinkers and writers and scholars – who struggled, but had the strength to overcome, their contributions paved the way for me to run for office, and their stories helped me see the path,” Moore said.
It’s this history that needs to be told, Moore added, despite efforts by Republican-led legislatures to minimize this history.
“I look around our country and I see book banning, I see teachers being censored, I see curriculum with the truth taken out,” said Moore. “And it is not just a threat to our history – it is a threat to our strength. ”
At least 26 states have banned books for pushing what conservatives argue is critical race theory, a legal framework taught in colleges that explores how racism is embedded in most American institutions.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed legislation prohibiting schools from spending public funding on diversity, equity and inclusion programs – or, what his office called “discriminatory initiatives.” DeSantis is expected to announce a 2024 presidential campaign this week.
Additionally, 474 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures around the nation, according to the ACLU.