Michael B. Moore
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
Michael B. Moore
Doctor of Public History
Citation Presented by Matthew Pinsker, Brian C. Pohanka ’77 Chair in American Civil War History
Conferring of the Degree by John E. Jones III, Interim President
Michael B. Moore, we honor you today as a distinguished leader in the movement to diversify how the United Statesremembers its national past.
You have spearheaded the recent effort to create the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, serving as the institution’s founding CEO and raising over $100 million to help open this groundbreaking cultural showcase by the end of next year. The new museum will stand at Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of kidnapped Africans were once sold into American slavery.
The museum will tell the stories of how these resilient people and millions of others who survived the tragic “Middle Passage” from Africa helped transform the culture of the Western Hemisphere. In the United States, these Africans and their descendants also quite literally built the new nation, as both enslaved and free people, while stepping forward at key moments to help save the republic, such as during the nation’s bloody Civil War. One of your own ancestors, an enslaved man from Charleston named Robert Smalls, emerged as a great American hero of that conflict, bravely stealing a Confederate vessel and piloting it out of Charleston Harbor in 1862 at the age of 23. The new museum will highlight the story of “Captain”—later Congressman—Smalls and hundreds of other heroic Black individuals and families from across American history who too often have been forgotten in our textbooks and public commemorations.
Here at Dickinson, we also have learned to appreciate the importance of remembering such overlooked stories. We now commemorate the fact that the earliest buildings on our campus, including the one we now stand before, were built with enslaved labor. We now remember the free Black employees who helped sustain this college during the 19th century, including one courageous African American janitor who fought to get his eldest son accepted as the institution’s first Black student. Just like the nation, we now recognize that Dickinson College has a diverse heritage that we are only beginning to fully appreciate.
Michael Moore, given your distinguished career in corporate America, you might be tempted to call such long overdue shifts in public historical memory the “rebranding” of the American experience. You have certainly helped manage brand development for some of the nation’s most iconic companies, while also earning a reputation as a highly sought-after public speaker and corporate thought leader. Whether in the C-suite or the museum gallery, you have clearly demonstrated your commitment to breaking barriers and opening minds.
For all of these reasons, Mr. President, I am honored to present to you Mr. Michael B. Moore for the honorary degree of Doctor of Public History.
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Michael B. Moore, upon the recommendation of the faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Public History, honoris causa, with all the rights, privileges, and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to the degree.