AG Loretta Lynch to NC law school grads: Diversity is our greatest strength.

In a week marked by pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses across the country, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told graduates of the North Carolina Central University School of Law that now more than ever, emissaries of the law are needed to reach across the aisles of disagreement.

Lynch, the nation’s first Black woman to hold the office of AG, said there is no doubt the country is entering challenging times. But each student should look back to understand how far we’ve come.

Friday’s ceremony also honored the 85th anniversary of the law school’s establishment. When it was launched in 1939, it was known as the North Carolina College for Negroes. Today it remains one of the nation’s six HBCU law schools.

“You were founded 15 years before Brown v Board of Education was even decided,” said Lynch. “You were founded 26 years before anybody even heard of Miranda rights. It was a world of Jim Crow, it was a world of poll taxes, it was a world of literacy tests, but the leaders of this school stepped out on faith and began the bold and the daring and the audacious mission of training Black lawyers.”

Lynch said founders of NC Central’s law school in Durham had faith in the strength and the resiliency of Black America, and faith in the power of the law.

The path to justice is rarely direct

She reminded graduates that just four years ago the world watched in horror as George Floyd lost his life under the knee of a uniformed police officer in in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“But I also remember that something else happened during that time. As people marched and spoke, they were joined by a broad swath of humanity, both in this country and around the world,” Lynch said. “We came together in an epiphany of understanding and empathy that began to fuel what we hoped was systemic change. We saw the possibility of change that recognized the costs of a pernicious racism, not just to its immediate victims, but to all of us.”

Now graduates are facing a world in which authoritarianism is rising and there are great threats to global peace. Even at home, there are efforts to shut down the fundamental right to vote, she said.

“I know it’s especially painful to see the opponents of equality and inclusion actually use the law to roll us back to the last century, the law which has made an imprint on everyone of us in this room, the law which has been our sword and shield in some of the most important fights in our history, we have used the law to open our society, to level the playing field, to unlock our greatness. Now, we see it being turned around and being used to close opportunity and even to close minds,” Lynch cautioned.

This is a backlash to progress that the nation has witnessed before, she said.

“The lesson we take from this is that the pendulum has swung this way before, it likely will again, but we have not lost this fight, as our gains and our progress have struck a chord with those who fear our power. It’s not that our values are not true, and our efforts aren’t strong, but it comes to every generation to defend those values in their own time.”

The Greensboro native said even as they celebrate the achievement of getting through school, the work is just beginning.

“We have pushed even when the law was not on our side, there was a time in this country when the law didn’t even recognize our humanity, and we didn’t give up then, we will not give up now. We worked to change things then, and we will do so now.”

Lynch, who was nominated in 2014 by then President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. Attorney General, told the graduates they needed not have a powerful title to make a difference. Some of her favorite moments came from when she was a young attorney just starting out.

“People may seek to challenge your right to your place in this world based on your race, based on your gender, where you went to school, or your southern connections. Never let them do it, never, never,” Lynch stressed. “Class of 2024, you did not come this far to make small-minded people comfortable. You came here to this place to make a difference.”