{"id":25806,"date":"2015-05-01T15:29:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T19:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?p=25806"},"modified":"2019-09-16T14:23:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T18:23:44","slug":"cornell-william-brooks-sth-87-chosen-as-2015-baccalaureate-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/cornell-william-brooks-sth-87-chosen-as-2015-baccalaureate-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornell William Brooks (STH &#039;87) Chosen as 2015 Baccalaureate Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/sth\/files\/2019\/09\/NAACP0031405394110-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sth\/files\/2019\/09\/NAACP0031405394110-copy-188x300.jpg\" alt=\"Cornell William Brooks, the new NAACP President, in Baltimore, MD.\" class=\"  wp-image-25807 alignleft\" height=\"348\" width=\"218\"><\/a>Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is delighted to welcome Cornell William Brooks (STH \u201987) to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2015\/meredith-vieira-chosen-as-2015-commencement-speaker\/\">give the Baccalaureate speech<\/a> during Boston University\u2019s 2015 Commencement celebration. Brooks will also receive an honorary Doctor of Law from Boston University.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.naacp.org\/pages\/cornell-william-brooks\">Brooks<\/a> is President and CEO of the NAACP and an ordained minister, lawyer, and human rights activist. He received his Master of Divinity from BUSTH, with a concentration in social ethics and systematic theology, followed by a doctoral degree from Yale Law School. At BUSTH, he was awarded the Oxnam-Leibman Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and promoting racial harmony, and the Jefferson Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and excellence in preaching.<br \/>\nAlso a graduate of Head Start, he has called himself \u201ca grandson, heir, and beneficiary\u201d of the landmark <em>Brown v. Board of Education <\/em>case<strong>.<\/strong> Brooks served as senior counsel with the Federal Communications Commission and a trial attorney with the Lawyer\u2019s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/05\/18\/us\/amid-tumult-naacp-elects-18th-leader.html?_r=2\">elected the eighteenth leader<\/a> of the NAACP in 2014 after serving as executive director of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.<br \/>\nIn his work for social justice, Brooks has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2015\/meredith-vieira-chosen-as-2015-commencement-speaker\/\">tirelessly advocated<\/a> for incarcerated men and women, for juveniles facing detention, and for workforce training for low-income residents. He has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.naacp.org\/news\/entry\/national-social-justice-advocate-cornell-william-brooks-selected-president\">worked for legislation<\/a> that aids formerly incarcerated men and women in rebuilding their lives, and successfully advocated for state legislation to reduce the effects of foreclosure. In 2014, he and the NAACP led a weeklong march from Ferguson, Missouri to Jefferson City, in response to the grand jury decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.<br \/>\nLast November, Brooks returned to BUSTH as a guest speaker for the Lowell Lecture at Boston University\u2019s Marsh Chapel. Brooks spoke on the theme of <a href=\"http:\/\/wgbhnews.org\/post\/cornell-william-brooks-transformational-leadership\">Transformational Leadership<\/a>, telling the audience, \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to say what we believe. We have to put our bodies where our beliefs are. Moving your lips when you\u2019re tempted to keep them closed can be an act of physical courage. Standing up when you would rather sit down can be an act of physical courage.\u201d<br \/>\nHe also spoke of the \u201cincredible legacy\u201d of BUSTH, naming Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Boston Personalists as \u201cthe prophetic tradition that you\u2019re called to serve and represent.\u201d<br \/>\nBrooks will speak at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/commencement\/commencement-weekend\/worship\/\">Baccalaureate Service<\/a>, held on May 17 at 11:00am at Marsh Chapel (735 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215). All graduates and their families are welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is delighted to welcome Cornell William Brooks (STH \u201987) to give the Baccalaureate speech during Boston University\u2019s 2015 Commencement celebration. Brooks will also receive an honorary Doctor of Law from Boston University. Brooks is President and CEO of the NAACP and an ordained minister, lawyer, and human rights activist. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39176,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25806\/revisions\/39176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}