'The American mind is not all that small, and it welcomes all ideas.'

Robert J. Booker, Knoxville’s most revered African American historian, an Austin High School graduate and a stalwart leader of Knoxville's Civil Rights Movement, died Feb. 22 at the age of 88.

Hailed as one of the last living icons from the Civil Rights Movement in Knoxville, Booker earned his stripes as a young student and president of the student body at the historically Black Knoxville College. While there, he was jailed during protests, led the sit-in movement to integrate lunch counters and played a pivotal role in the integration of the historic Tennessee Theatre in 1963.

Booker, who served as a city councilperson and was Knoxville's first Black Tennessee state representative, left a legacy as rich as the history he tirelessly chronicled. He was an author, historian and columnist for Knox News, and could dance with the best.

He played a pivotal role in local history.

Shortly before his death, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville granted Booker an honorary degree.

The following is a transcript of a video that was made of the occasion and played at the university's commencement this month.

Chancellor Donde Plowman

The decision to grant an honorary degree goes through the campus administration, the faculty senate, and the UT Board of Trustees. They've all approved this.

So today you join leaders of industry, journalists, activists, astronauts, government leaders, a Disney princess and Dolly Parton.

You're right up there.

As Tennessee's first African American state representative, and a civil rights leader in our community, serving on countless boards, councils and commissions, dedicated to furthering change you exemplify exactly what it means to be a Volunteer.

Your commitment to preserving our history, and your insightful reflections on our past has provided generations of Knoxvillians and Tennesseans with a deeper understanding of our community and of ourselves.

Your work has empowered all of us to create a brighter future together. Your passion and your accomplishments are an inspiration to our students and a reminder to all of us, all of us what it means to live a life of leadership and service.

It is a great privilege to present you with an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Congratulations, Dr. Booker.

Dr. Robert Booker

Thank you.

Plowman

Congratulations, Dr. Booker.

Booker

At 88 years old, I suffer from an aching back and my hips are gone. But yet, I didn't realize how bad it was until I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

When I called the chancellor's office and told her that I had to decline my invitation I was not let off the hook. They made special arrangements for me to accept the degree and to make the talk.

So here I am at home in hospice, to do what I agreed to do so many months ago.

It is hard to believe that I am sitting here at the age of 88 receiving the highest legal honor and I'm deeply grateful for the occasion it offers me.

Seventy-one years ago, when I was a senior in Austin High School here in Knoxville, this school was not available. The state law was enacted in 1901 that said the Blacks and whites could not sit in the same classroom together.

But that began to change during my senior year at Austin High School 70 years ago, when the University of Tennessee admitted Gene Mitchell Gray to the graduate school. That was in the fall of 1952. It was the last of several Blacks who had challenged to become students here after the first group was denied entry,

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Dr. Plowman and officials of this great university and faculty, friends who are about to graduate, I thank you for this moment of reflecting on how savoring and important the occasion is for a high honor like this and I'm grateful.

I was in my senior year at Knoxville College when it opened the doors to graduate students. And since that time in 1961, students of all colors and nationalities have sat here in one of the greatest educational institutions in the world.

When desegregation came, there were no editorials against the university, people were not in an uproar, and the governor did not block the school door. Citizens had decided that it was the time to do what was right.

You about to graduate today have had some of the greatest experiences of your lives, and professors steeped in their particular fields have given their best thinking. They have sat beside fellow students who showed their brilliance, who have struggled with classwork or personal problems. You have hobnobbed with some of the world's greatest athletes. You were a part of their victories and defeats. I hope you saw them at their best.

And when they showed human frailty that it will help you understand and negotiate the uncertainties of society. You have gone to parties, you saw some plays. You sat through an opera where you thought the fat lady would never sing. Whether you are a graduate of Podunk high school or a hoity-toity prep school, there was much to learn at UT.

And if you kept your eyes and ears open there were a lot of good things to creep in.

But it is my fervent prayer that you will leave this place and work hard at your chosen profession, and also that you will use your experience and education to help guide your community.

Our world is still too full of hate, violence, intolerance and injustice. Only an enlightened public can change that.

It seems that there are some in government leadership who would take us back to the good old days, or probably back to the bad old days. But they don't want our children to know about the evils of slavery. They don't want our children to hear about the struggles of the LGBTQ-plus community. Some still don't believe the Holocaust existed.

I spent the first 28 years of my life here in Knoxville in a segregated society. I went to segregated schools, rode the back of the bus, drank from the colored water fountain. I had to sit on the balcony at the Bijou Theater. I had to look for a job in the colored want ads sections. I had to be buried in the National Cemetery. We had no colors, no white cemeteries to bury colored in.

We have had a free-thinking society for many years now. We could not listen to issues from both sides and make up our minds about them. Now there is a strong effort to silence even historical notes in the names of protecting our children. We have banned books, passed laws, and dared our public teachers to talk about racial injustice and the plight of being gay or transgender.

The American mind is not all that small, and it welcomes all ideas.

To be fully vetted to cherish those ideas that make us great and keep an eye on those who might do us harm, this is why we're here today. You have to read some of those banned books. You have to hear lectures from liberals and conservatives alike. You have heard the best arguments. You have prepared to meet the world in all its diversity.

I wish you the best of luck.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: 'The American mind is not all that small, and it welcomes all ideas.'