By CAITLIN BYRD | The State | Published: March 7, 2021 CHARLESTON, S.C. (Tribune News Service) Ken Gordon never kept a journal during his time at The Citadel. But no one, he explained more than 35 years later, can forget hell. When Gordon reported to the Charleston campus in August 1984, he found a South that refused to let go of its past. Confederate battle flags waved in the stands during home football games. Cadets marched to Dixie during Friday afternoon parades. Eighteen years had passed since Charles DeLesline Foster broke the color barrier in 1966 to become the first African American to join the Corps of Cadets. Yet Gordon, an 18-year-old Black freshman from Willingboro, N.J., remembers being called one name more than any other his first year: The N-word.
Graduation Plans
Norman Seabrooks
This May, approximately 1,000 cadets and Citadel Graduate College students will graduate from The Citadel. The college is laying the groundwork for in-person commencement ceremonies for both groups, and the speakers for the ceremonies are prepared to address cadets, students and their guests in person. Each graduate will be provided with electronic tickets for a limited number of guests because the college anticipates the need for continued social distancing.
“We surveyed last year’s graduates to ask what the two most important factors of commencement were to them. Overwhelmingly, the answers were to graduate alongside their classmates and to have their parents and family present,” said Citadel President Gen. Glenn M. Walters. “This year, with more time to plan than we had last spring, we are thrilled to be able to make that happen.”