Oprah Winfrey on Saturday delighted graduates of her alma mater Tennessee State University, telling them the US is not a “finished product” as she applauded ousted state lawmakers for protesting gun laws.
Winfrey, 69, told the class of 2023 that they are living through a difficult time in many ways as she discreetly addressed the recent shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School that left six dead in March.
The former talk show host applauded the post-massacre actions of Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who were expelled by the Republican majority last month after decency violations by protesting tougher gun laws from the House floor.
“Unfortunately, you will find people who insist that it is not actually possible to make any difference,” she said. But she held up the examples of the two Democratic state representatives who “used their lives to prove the cynics wrong.”
The United States is “not a finished product,” she said. ‘Everything is possible. The wheels are still turning. Saints walk among us. And as Nelson Mandela so brilliantly showed, it is better to be hopeful than afraid, if only because hope brings us one step closer to joy.’
Jones and Pearson were reinstated on an interim basis by their local councils within days and now face special elections to regain their seats.
Oprah Winfrey delivers the graduation speech Saturday at Tennessee State University’s graduation ceremony in Nashville
Winfrey, 69, discreetly mentioned the mass shooting in Nashville and applauded lawmakers Justin Jones and Justin Pearson for protesting tougher gun laws
Aside from praising lawmakers, Winfrey began her inspirational speech by telling the story of how she fell one point short of graduating when she launched the media career that would make her a household name.
Winfrey gave the commencement speech at the historically black college and recalled living with her father in East Nashville while she attended college, helping out at his store and presenting the weekend news on a black radio station.
That’s where the lead anchor of the local CBS television affiliate heard her voice. He called her at school to ask if she wanted a job.
“I said, ‘No sir. TV? Not really sir, because my dad says I have to finish school and school is just too important,” Winfrey recalled.
She then went back to class and related the conversation to her scene design professor, who “looked at me like I didn’t have the brains that God gave lettuce,” Winfrey said.
Winfrey spoke to her father and she took the job. At the beginning of the second semester of her sophomore year, Winfrey arranged to finish her classes at 2:00 pm so that she could work at the television station from 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm and be home by 11:00 pm by her father’s curfew.
By the end of her senior year in 1975, Winfrey’s career was in full swing. So she wasn’t very upset when she learned that she was one credit short and wouldn’t be able to graduate.
But her father wouldn’t let go of the subject and asked her for years, “When are you going to get that degree?”
While discreetly mentioning the recent mass shooting in Nashville, Winfrey said, “The United States is ‘not a finished product’
Aside from praising the legislators, Winfrey started her speech by telling the story of how she fell one point short of graduating. Pictured: Winfrey took selfies with graduates’ families and guests at Tennessee State University’s commencement ceremony on Saturday
Winfrey gave the commencement speech at the historically black college and recalled living with her father in East Nashville while she attended college, helping out at his store and presenting the weekend news on a black radio station.
That’s where the lead anchor of the local CBS television affiliate heard her voice. He called her at school to ask if she wanted a job. Pictured: Oprah Winfrey and TSU President Glenda Baskin Glover attend Tennessee State University’s commencement ceremony
Winfrey was best known for her popular talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which first aired in 1986. Pictured: Oprah Winfrey, right, touches the face of Treasure Henderson, 7, during the Tennessee State commencement ceremony University
TSU President Glenda Baskin Glover gives Oprah Winfrey an honorary doctorate at Tennessee State University’s commencement ceremony
Finally, in 1988, she got to write a paper and submit some of her shows for the credits.
“So I graduated from Tennessee State right around the time I got my third Emmy,” Winfrey said.
Her success in life is due to God’s grace and to listening to what she called the “still, small voice” within as she filtered out the noise of the world.
That way, “you start to know your own heart and figure out what matters most,” Winfrey said.
“Every right move I’ve made has come from listening closely and following that still, small voice.”
Winfrey was best known for her popular talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, which first aired in 1986.
After nearly three decades, the show came to an end in 2011. But Winfrey’s ambition for television lasted for several years, including in March 2021 when she sat down with Meghan and Harry for a bombshell interview in which the pair went on a series of very damaging broadcasts. allegations about the royal family.