Harper Rzepczynski
Opinions Editor
On Sept. 18, I gleefully embarked through the 90 degree heat to All Saints’ Chapel, ready to receive my gown. I had been envisioning the ceremony for months — I would imagine how my long, black, pin-riddled gown would flow behind me; how hard I would hug my friends in celebration; how affirming this academic triumph would feel. However, one thing I neglected to consider that day was Sewanee’s regretful history until Board of Regents Chair Dr. Renia Dotson delivered her enlightening address.
Dotson, the first African-American woman to hold the position of chair for Sewanee’s Board of Regents, emphasizes how the beauty of our campus contrasts with its distressing past, which was built on the backs of enslaved labor. She brings attention to the Roberson Project in particular, pointing out initiatives which seek to move forward while also acknowledging the Lost Cause and Confederate-aligned history of Sewanee, describing the choice of “moral integrity over institutional comfort.” Dotson’s primary declaration is a call for stewardship, defining it as “an active, moral obligation rooted in truth-telling — a shared commitment to leave this Mountain better than we found it.” Her address deeply inspired and touched me.
I didn’t only watch Dotson deliver her speech. I gazed around the room. In understanding Sewanee’s tragic history, there was power in seeing All Saints’ full of women, people of color, queer people, and international students all excitedly being inducted into the Order of the Gown. Our school, once constructed by enslaved Black Americans solely for white, Christian men to receive an education and honors such as the gown, hosted an array of people and identities who were once denied these opportunities. This struck me as an immutable testament to progress. Rather than all of us being united by a common race, gender, ethnicity, or religion, the only two things that everybody sitting in All Saints’ that afternoon had in common were intellectual achievements and a desire to move forward, both personally and within the context of Sewanee’s origins.
Dotson’s point stands grounded and unmoving; we must recognize history in order to comprehend the true significance of the gown. Sewanee as a whole still has a long way to go in terms of repairing the deep-rooted horrors of our history and its consequential system. Many of the gownees that day would have never been considered to join the Order of the Gown, originally called the Order of the Gownsmen, in 1873. Even just considering the name, it took until 2017 to rename the Order of Gownsmen to the Order of the Gown: another demonstration of the slow beginnings of progress. The beauty of our campus holds no value if we cover up our past and therefore refuse to acknowledge our intentions to move forward. Educate yourself, internalize what needs to be done and enter the world with an authentic understanding of Ecce Quam Bonum.