The below message was sent to faculty, staff, and students on March 16, 2026.
Dear Bryn Mawr Community:
With the United States celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, I am proud to announce that American history will be at the center of our upcoming commencement ceremonies, as civil rights icon Ruby Bridges and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed will address the 2026 graduates.
Ruby Bridges will speak at the undergraduate commencement on Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m.
Ms. Bridges walked into history under the protection of U.S. Marshals when, at age 6, she became the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in Louisiana.
Her walk to the front door of the school was immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With," in Robert Coles' book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, and in a Disney movie.
She established the Ruby Bridges Foundation in 1999 to provide leadership training programs that inspire youth and community leaders to embrace and value the richness of diversity.
Ms. Bridges is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NAACP Martin Luther King Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and honorary doctorate degrees from Connecticut College, College of New Rochelle, Columbia University Teachers College, and Tulane University. In March 2024, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
She is the author of the books Through My Eyes; This Is Your Time; I Am Ruby Bridges; and Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts.
Annette Gordon-Reed will speak at the graduate-student commencement on Friday, May 15, at 5 p.m.
Ms. Gordon-Reed is a Harvard Law professor, the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize for History, and an expert on the American Revolution — who was also the first Black student to enroll in an all-white school in her Texas hometown.
She has written six books. The Hemingses of Monticello, which won the National Book Award, explores the inconsistencies of Thomas Jefferson's stance on slavery and his relationship with an enslaved woman, Sally Hemings. Her most recent book, On Juneteenth, captures the importance of the holiday. When President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday — the culmination of a decades-long effort — Gordon-Reed was among those invited to witness the historic moment. Her next book, Jefferson on Race: A Reader, is being published later this month.
Her honors include the National Humanities Medal (awarded by President Barack Obama), a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Gordon-Reed was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is a member of the Academy's Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019, she was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, and she is president of the Organization of American Historians.
More information about the commencement ceremonies can be found online. The ceremonies will be livestreamed. Tickets are required to attend both ceremonies.
Wendy Cadge
President and Professor of Sociology
Bryn Mawr College
101 N. Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Pronouns: she/her
brynmawr.edu
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