May 8, 2017

President Jackson, Chairman Petrock & Members of the Board of Bethune-Cookman University:

We are writing to you as organizations, who work to advance human rights for people of color and
working class people in Florida and across the US, to condemn your decision to invite US
Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to serve as the commencement speaker for this years
graduation ceremony and grant her a degree. We stand with the students, alumni and local
community members who have demanded that you rescind this invitation and honorary degree.
Betsy DeVos, and the entire Trump Administration, have acted against the needs of Black and
Brown people, working class people of all races, HBCUs and our entire public education system.
As a fellow community leader, who is responsible for presiding over the legacy of such an historic
and treasured institution, we deem your decision reckless, irresponsible and in direct conflict with
the legacy of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.

Within the first 100 days of this administration, we have seen many examples of their disregard
towards people of color, poor people, women and international communities as they seek to
dismantle social services and further police and criminalize our communities, while creating more
and more wealth for the corporate class. When it comes to the future of education, Betsy DeVos
has vowed to dismantle public education in favor of privatization and charter schools, to bring
more guns and police into our schools, has ended federal programs that encourage diversity in
public schools and is in the process of developing a student loan repayment plan that would make
it harder for 97 percent of the current student body of Bethune-Cookman University, and millions
of students across the country, to payback their loans. Betsy DeVos referred to HBCUs as
pioneers of school choice, a sign of how tone deaf she is to the history and needs of Black
communities. This weekend, Trump announced that a program that helps ensure equitable
financing to HBCUs may be unconstitutional.

As community leaders, there is no room for negotiation with this administration as their actions
and rhetoric have made it clear exactly where they stand. There is absolutely no reason why Betsy
DeVos should be given a platform to speak to Black graduates and at a Black institution, while she
is spending her days seeking to make life more difficult for Black people, rolling back civil rights
and dismantling our institutions. Your decision to proceed with the invitation to DeVos, despite
concerns from students, alumni, local community members and thousands of people across the
country, who have signed petitions, is disgraceful. Furthermore, the threats leveraged against
students and their organizations for speaking out against DeVos invitation are unconstitutional. It
is our job as educators and community leaders to encourage young Black students, our next
generation of leaders, to think critically, to speak their truth and to fight for the right thing. We
cannot in good conscious be silent about the many ways your actions have undermined this duty.

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune said in her last will and testament, Faith, courage, brotherhood,
dignity, ambition, responsibility - these are needed today as never before. We must cultivate them
and use them as tools for our task of completing the establishment of equality for the Negro. We
must sharpen these tools in the struggle that faces us and find new ways of using them. The
Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open. As individuals who stand on the
shoulders of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, her legacy demands we speak out against injustice and
the blatant disregard for the history of the institution she founded.

We ask that you join this community of students, alumni, leaders and organizations across the
country, in standing against the Trump administration and in support of Black students and all
people everywhere.

Sincerely,

The NAACP Broward Young Black Progressives Northeast Student Power

Florida Student Power Network BYP100 Florida Democratic Party
Dream Defenders National Black Justice Coalition For Florida's Future
The New Florida Majority Alliance for Educational Justice SEIU Faculty Forward
Color of Change Organize Florida SONG
Student Debt Crisis Organize Florida Educ. Fund
Ignite NC Florida Educational Assoc.
Black University Advancement Project