The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a place that opens doors for students – many of whom are the first in their families to pursue higher education and earn a college degree.
Their college careers at UMES culminate at graduation with words of wisdom and guidance delivered by accomplished, prominent and sometimes historic figures.
Among the luminaries who have graced the Princess Anne campus for spring commencement exercises during the past half-century:
- Horace Mann Bond (1948, 1961), social scientist, historian, college president (Fort Valley State College & Lincoln University)
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1954), First Lady and women’s rights activist
- Thurgood Marshall (1957), civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.* (1959), minister, civil rights leader
- Jack Roosevelt Robinson (1968), the first Black man to integrate Major League Baseball in the 20th century
- Nikki Giovanni (1974), poet, writer, educator, leader of the Black Arts movement
- Andrew Young (1978), pastor, civil rights activist, politician, diplomat
- Benjamin F. Payton (1987), minister, farmer, educator, Tuskegee University president (1981-2010)
- Bishop Desmond Tutu* (2005), Anglican clergyman and South African civil rights activist
- Marian Wright Edelman (2006), founder / president Children’s Defense Fund
* – Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
