‘This felt like a slap in the face’: HBCU students at South Carolina State protest Pamela Evette as commencement speaker

Students at South Carolina State University launch petition, protesting Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette as 2026 commencement speaker.

This week, students at South Carolina State University, the state’s first public HBCU, are outraged after the university announced to student leaders its plans to invite South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to speak at the 2026 commencement ceremony.  The student body did not hesitate to share its disdain for the decision. So much so that Summer Gray, a senior Communications/Broadcasting major at the HBCU, launched a petition that has garnered over 10,000 signatures requesting a new 2026 commencement ceremony speaker. 

“My initial reaction to learning about Pamela Evette was thinking it was a joke to be quite honest with you. Once I learned that this was indeed our commencement speaker, I was heartbroken. This felt like a slap in the face to me and my fellow graduates,” Gray tells theGrio. “What made me start this petition is the fact that they invited a speaker who is against everything we believe in as HBCU students. She openly stated that she is against DEI, and coming to speak to people of color with that belief is disrespectful.”

Similarly, Student Government President Zaria Tucker shared a Facebook post outlining why students oppose Evette serving as their commencement speaker. 

“Commencement is one of the most important moments of our collegiate experience; it should reflect the voices, values, and lived experiences of the students it celebrates. Right now, many students are speaking out, not to divide, but to be heard,” Tucker captioned the post. “At an HBCU, our legacy is rooted in advocacy, equity, and the power of our voices. When decisions are made without us in moments that belong to us, it matters…We are not asking for noise; we are asking for respect. We are not creating division, we are calling for alignment with who we are.” 

Reports of student protests emerged on Tuesday, April 28, as students reportedly held a peaceful demonstration in the university’s administration building near SCSU president Alexander Conyers’ office. During what appeared to be a sit-in, videos posted to social media show students voicing their concerns to university officials. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Black Owned South Carolina™ (@blackownedsc)

Hours later, Evette responded to the on-campus protests in a series of videos shared on her social media pages, in which she stated: “Let’s be clear: facts trump feelings in the real world. President Trump and conservatives have done more for HBCUs than any administration in history. I must be doing something right because woke mobs are coming after me for being a champion of eliminating radical DEI scams on college campuses. So bring it on. Just like President Trump, I’ll never back down or bend a knee to the woke radicals. I’m ending DEI on campuses once and for all. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I look forward to celebrating commencement with the students and faculty at SC State.” 

While University officials told WACH FOX that the speaker for the May 8th commencement ceremony has not been selected, Evette told reporters in a press conference on April 29 that the school’s official office reached out with an invitation “months back.” 

“This is not something that just happened. It’s been on my calendar,” the SC Lt. Gov said before explaining why she referred to the student protesters as a “woke mob” in her previous statement. “Anytime you have people with signs and bullhorns, yelling that you know I am pro-life. I am against DEI, and I am a big supporter of the president; those are all facts. But there’s a better way to do things. If these are well-educated young adults, we should all be able to attend anything and hear opposing views and be okay with that.” 

“But yelling and chanting and screaming is what we’re seeing happen all over the country from California to New York. Uh, we are seeing it all over. It can’t happen here. And what we saw with hundreds of people coming together, yelling and chanting  is a mob anyway you slice it.”

However, SC State students have received support from alumni, social media users, and even State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate who released a video backing the students. In response to Evette’s comments, students were seen protesting that evening, denouncing the “mob” label.

“I was very disappointed in Evette’s response. As someone running for a government position, she was extremely unprofessional and insensitive. Telling students to ‘bring it on’ is highly inappropriate. As a politician, you should be about bringing people together and not dividing them,” Gray explained. 

Ultimately, through these demonstrations, Gray says students are telling university officials, “This is unacceptable,” and hopes that SC State will either rescind its invitation to Evette and recruit a new speaker or proceed with the commencement ceremony without a speaker as well as issue an apology to its students, faculty, and alumni. 

“The university’s first obligation should be to cater to the needs of students. What message do they believe they are sending to current students, future students, and their alumni?” she noted. And while the students wait for university officials to respond, they are extending a “huge thank you to everyone standing with us students from our school and other schools, alumni, parents, and members of the community. This movement and the growth of this petition would not have been possible without any of you.”

When theGrio reached out to SC State for comment, a representative shared: “At this time, the university does not have an official comment to share, and no information has been released regarding this matter. Should any updates become available, we will communicate them through our official channels.”