JCSU will host governor with national buzz as 2026 commencement speaker
Johnson C. Smith University will host Maryland Governor Wes Moore as its 2026 commencement speaker, JCSU President Valerie Kinloch announced this week.
It’s one of two commencement addresses Moore is giving in key battleground states this May, with Democrats eying him as a potential presidential contender in 2028. The commencement speeches are likely to increase speculation about Moore’s interest in running in 2028, CBS News reported.
Along with Johnson C. Smith, Moore is also slated to be the keynote commencement speaker at Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Pennsylvania, where he received an associate’s degree in 1998. The Johnson C Smith ceremony will be held May 17 at Bojangles Coliseum, JCSU said this week on its Facebook page.
Moore, an army veteran graduate of Johns Hopkins University, was elected Maryland’s first Black governor in 2023, making him the third African American to be elected governor of a state in the U.S.
Moore also founded the Baltimore-based college success startup BridgeEdU, later acquired by Edquity in 2018. The business offered transition support for freshman year of college for underserved students. He later went on to serve four years as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, New York City’s largest anti-poverty organization.
“Johnson C. Smith University looks forward to welcoming Moore to campus to inspire the Class of 2026 as the JCSU scholars prepare to lead in a rapidly changing world,” university officials said in a news release.
Moore is JCSU’s 153rd commencement speaker. The historically Black university was founded in 1867 as Freedmen’s College of North Carolina. It sits on Beatties Ford Road, just west of uptown Charlotte and currently serves around 1,100 students.
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
