Congressman John Lewis Declines to Speak at UCSD Commencement

Rep. John Lewis at Supreme Court news conference to call for the reversal of President Trump’s travel ban. Photo courtesy of Lorie Shaull. Link to photo license.

Congressman John Lewis has withdrawn from speaking at UC San Diego’s 2018 all-campus commencement ceremony due to concerns with how the UC system treats union workers.

As of Tuesday, all mentions of Lewis’ name were removed from the 2018 Commencement website.

Lewis, a prominent leader during the Civil Rights Movement along with Dr. Martin Luther King, has served in Congress since 1986. In January, it was announced that Lewis would serve as UCSD’s 2018 graduating class commencement speaker. However, in April, AFSCME 3299, the UC system’s largest labor union, voted to authorize a strike from May 7 through 9 due to an inability to reach a contract agreement with the UC. The union also cited concerns with the UC system’s treatment of women of color, who earn significantly less starting pay.

Earlier in May, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris withdrew from UC Berkeley’s commencement following AFSCME’s request. Congressman Ted Lieu pulled out of UCLA Law School’s commencement in May, citing the same concerns, and just five days ago, UCLA alumnus and Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik declined to speak at UCLA’s all-campus commencement.

“I think that John Lewis joining the AFSCME 3299 speaker boycott is a powerful statement because he is standing along with thousands of workers across the UC, a majority of whom are Black and brown, to assert that we will not uplift an institution which continually neglects the dignity of its lowest paid workers, [an institution] which repeatedly chooses anti-Blackness as a means of pursuing profit,” said ASUCSD Labor Commissioner Prajay Lolabattu.

A UCSD Communications statement released late Tuesday confirms that Chancellor Pradeep Khosla will serve as the 2018 Commencement Speaker in Lewis’ place.

Gabe Schneider is the Founder of The Triton. You can follow him on Twitter @gabemschneider.

Update June 6 10:45 p.m.: Information from UCSD Communications confirming that Rep. Lewis withdrew because of a UC-wide AFSCME boycott and that Chancellor Khosla will now serve as 2018 Commencement speaker has been added.

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View Comments

handy says:

June 5, 2018 at 10:57 pm

Yay, maybe I'll go to commencement now. I wasn't interested in more democrat propaganda. The humanities spew it enough.
- Gren Wren says:
  
  August 14, 2018 at 4:18 pm
  
  "Democrat" Propaganda. John Lewis was beaten in the head during the Selma March all because he was black. I'm glad people have become wiser and evolved their childish hatred of the man from "He's black" to "He's a Democrat" I see now that the blind idiotic hatred racists had for Blacks have no evolved from "Black" to "Democrat" Henceforth, Democrat or liberal is basically how racists now evolve their indirect hatred of minorities.
  - Andrew says:
    
    October 3, 2018 at 12:23 am
    
    Can you translate that gibberish to English please?
    - vermis librorum says:
      
      November 17, 2018 at 10:39 pm
      
      I can see how the comment is hard to understand. This is my own interpretation which might not be 100% correct: the commenter is saying that just because John Lewis is a Democrat congressman, it doesn't necessarily mean that his speech would be Democrat propaganda. In other words, he could have been invited to speak about his participation in the Civil Rights Movement.
      In the second part, I think Gren Wren is saying:
      Because Democrats have a reputation for supporting minorities/black communities, some people who hate Democrats, like the first commenter (handy), have equated being black to being a Democrat, and then transferred their dislike to that new label.
      The original commenter would still be the best person to clarify, but this is my attempt.