chief diversity officer

Franklin Pierce Community:

As we continue our work each day to live our values and becoming a more inclusive environment for each student, faculty, and staff member, June brings to the forefront a time of celebration and deep reflection. As Franklin Pierce University recognizes and celebrates Pride and Juneteenth, we must also reflect on what these celebrations mean, where we are as a community, a country, and a society, and how we can continue to work towards and promote a more equal and just world. I encourage every Raven, during this time of reflection and celebration, to come together in renewed commitment to our DEI values which can be found here. 

PRIDE

The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village. The raid sparked what has long been called a ‘riot’ among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar, in neighboring streets, and in nearby Christopher Park.

These events, more than 50 years ago, mark the moment in our history when members of the LGBTQIA+ community fought back against law enforcement who regularly raided clubs, bars, and other spaces frequented by members of the community. While the events at Stonewall were not the first acts of resistance against the oppressive culture towards same-gender loving people, they sparked a nationally coordinated effort among street and political activists, the media, allies, and perhaps most importantly, brought together, in solidarity, the broad fabric of individuals who make up the queer community.

Pride is not just a commemoration of the Stonewall Inn events, but a time to reflect on the struggle for equality, a reminder to live authentically, and a symbol to stand proudly. Every story and every experience of members of the LGBTQIA+ community is different, and the acceptance of those differences is the foundation of PRIDE! This month, and in all the months to follow, we celebrate the meaning of PRIDE with solemn reverence for those who fought, were imprisoned, and died for equal rights – lest we forget that freedom isn’t free.

The late gay liberation activist at the center of the events at Stonewall, Marsha P. Johnson, once said “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”

I invite you to learn more by visiting the True Colors Youth Organization and GLAAD websites, contacting the Franklin Pierce Gender and Sexuality Association, or the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. You may also get involved in the largest New Hampshire PRIDE festival by clicking here.

JUNETEENTH

Imagine that you and your progeny had been kidnapped from your home, imprisoned, forced into brutal labor, and systematically (and legally) stripped of your humanity for more than 400 years – simply because of the color of your skin. Now, imagine learning that you had been released from that prison-like existence two years after the judge had ordered your release – but your jailers never told you.

On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with an announcement of freedom for former slaves, two years following the Emancipation Proclamation and codified in the 13th Amendment.. Juneteenth – also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day – celebrates this emancipation which marks the day that all those who had been enslaved were finally free.

Today, African-Americans commemorate this date as our Independence Day from legalized slavery. Some descendants of formerly enslaved peoples conduct a pilgrimage back to their southern ancestral roots to commemorate the date, while others celebrate with prayer, feasting, and familial gatherings.

As we’ve seen in recent years, true freedom is measured by the degree to which we enjoy all the rights and treatments of full citizenship. The right to vote unabridged by race or color. The right to be secure in our own persons through the promotion of equal justice. The unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As we commemorate this day of Independence, let us continue to work toward true liberty and reflect on the words of Frederick Douglass, who shared that freedom is “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action”.

I invite you to learn more about Juneteenth and promoting equality in justice by visiting the Manchester, N.H. NAACP website, by connecting with and joining our A.L.A.NA. and Justice in Action Athletic Alliance groups on the Franklin Pierce University campus, or by contacting the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Yours Always in Peace,

Pierre V.C. Morton, Ed.D, MBA, SHRM-CP (he, him, his)
Chief Diversity Officer 
Co-Chair, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council
Co-Chair, Strategic Planning Committee

THE MLK IN YOU

MLK in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. 

In 1944, Morehouse College, then known as Augusta Baptist Institute, admitted a promising young man to their academic ranks named Martin Luther King Jr. No one could have imagined that this “ordinary student” would influence, inspire and change the trajectory of our nation and world in his 39 short-lived years.

This week marks both the federal holiday celebrating Dr. King and the time when colleges and universities across the country hold the sixth annual National Day of Racial Healing.

Read more about Dr. King's impact