death row
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Evergreen commencement speech
In the past, Evergreen seniors have elected who would be their graduation speaker not from a predetermined list set by the administration, but through their votes alone. In 1999, then-govenor of Washington Gary Locke was set to deliver the commencement speech at Evergreen. Locke cancelled at the last minute, reportedly saying he wouldn’t “share the stage with a convicted cop killer,” and the administration went with the second choice on the list: political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal