Colin Powell: Commencement Address at Howard University

Audience

Although Powell’s speech was given directly to hundreds of Howard University’s 1994 graduates, their friends, families, and the university community of faculty and administrators, it also had a much wider audience. In part, Powell was rebutting the racial attitudes and strategies of Khalid Abdul Muhammad and those of his followers and sympathizers who embraced his philosophy. Additionally, he was addressing a national media audience who may have wrongly associated Howard University with violent black nationalism in an effort to rescue the university’s public image; it was not coincidental that Powell was subsequently appointed to Howard’s board of regents. And, finally, Powell’s speech was also aimed at a national voting audience, black and white, who were potential supporters had he actually decided to throw his political hat into the presidential ring.