“You know the scenario as well as anyone: ungovernable students, rampant gangs, drug and alcohol abuse extending below the middle schools, an over-emphasis on athletics and an under-emphasis on serious study and academic achievement.”

“What better way for you to take on your role as responsible, mature citizens than to insist that the American ideal of equality of race, sex, religion and ethnic groups be adhered to because that idea was bought and paid for by all Americans, regardless of race,” he said, prompting applause from the audience.

“We wanted to create a backdrop of Duke and ensure we had some memorable imagery,” Haltom said.

Despite the intense recent media scrutiny of Duke related to the lacrosse team, little was unusual about this year’s commencement except for the new backdrop and an increased number of reporters and cameras. A handful of graduates also wore the numbers 13 and 45 on their mortarboards, apparently in support of indicted lacrosse players Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, who wore those numbers on their jerseys.

Duke President Richard H. Brodhead awarded four honorary degrees, to physics professor and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu, founder and CEO of Self-Help Martin Eakes, broadcast journalist Nina Totenberg and former director of the National Institutes of Health James Wyngaarden. Franklin received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Duke in 1998.

Brodhead introduced Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, as someone who not only “virtually founded the study of African-American history,” but also embodied the value of “using knowledge in service to the common good.”

Franklin praised Duke students for their work outside the confines of the university, and urged them to continue to “become activists in the promotion of the highest ideas of learning and service that are central to what you have experienced at Duke University.”

“I doubt that many of you can be rightfully accused of living in an ivory tower during your years at Duke. But if you are so accused, I very much hope that you are not guilty, that you have been sensitive to the needs of this community and your several respective home communities and that you have worked diligently to improve them,” he said. He noted that Duke students have worked in the Walltown community of Durham, in the schools and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I am especially aware of and grateful to the Duke tutors who have undertaken the special task of working with Durham high school students in a program named in my honor.... For these and similar activities you are to be commended.”

But Franklin also warned the graduates against “succumbing to a feeling of elitism that, in turn, can lead to false pride or, worse still, a false sense of self-importance.”

Provost Peter Lange praised the student speaker, Yazan Kopty, for reaching out to others and seeking to understand complex and difficult global issues, such as the Middle East conflict.

In a spring when students’ achievements have been overshadowed by “sad events and relentless media coverage,” Lange said, “it’s a pleasure to introduce a student who has made the most of his experience.”

Kopty has lived in the United States, Jordan, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates and spent last summer interviewing Palestinian refugees. After graduation, he will go to Cambodia on a Hart Fellowship.

Kopty talked about his memories of Duke: mistakenly taking the Robertson bus to Chapel Hill instead of East Campus (“I did that twice”), chatting with friends on the chapel steps and “the good, the bad and the basketball.” (For the text of his speech, click here.)

He, like Franklin, urged the graduates to use their educations to make the world a better place. He said he has spent his entire life negotiating difficult terrain and knows how uncomfortable that is.

“I also know it is rewarding and powerful and most of all, necessary,” he said. “None of us were born into an equal or balanced world. While we are the lucky ones, we are all in this together. Indeed, this is the challenge of the global era.”