Students at South Carolina State University protested on Tuesday after reports surfaced that Pamela Evette had been selected to speak at the school’s spring commencement ceremony. The demonstration unfolded on the Orangeburg campus near the Donna Administration Building, where students held signs and staged a sit-in as the controversy spread across campus.
The protest followed an online petition calling for a new speaker that drew more than 2,000 signatures, according to WACH. The ceremony is scheduled for May 8, and the dispute quickly became about more than one speech: it turned into a public challenge over who should represent South Carolina’s only public HBCU at one of its biggest moments of the year.
Evette answered with a video posted to social media, saying, “Let’s be clear — facts trump feelings in the real world,” and adding that she must be doing something right because “woke mobs” were coming after her for being a champion of eliminating “radical DEI scams” on college campuses. She said she would not “back down or bend a knee to the woke radicals” and said she was “ending DEI on campuses once and for all.”
The clash sits at the intersection of campus identity and state politics. South Carolina State is the only public HBCU in South Carolina, and the fight centers on Evette’s criticism of DEI on college campuses. Evette is a Republican and serves as lieutenant governor under Gov. Henry McMaster while continuing her campaign for governor. WACH reported that SC State officials said a commencement speaker had not yet been formally selected, while The State reported that student leadership had been informed of the plan.
That gap leaves the university with a problem it has not yet resolved: whether the backlash over Evette’s name is enough to force a change before May 8, or whether the school will hold the line and let the fight over commencement speak for itself.
