News

Johnson C. Smith University is proud to announce its distinguished speaker for the 2025 Commencement Ceremonies. The University’s 152nd Commencement will take place on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Bojangles Coliseum, featuring acclaimed television personality, comedian and philanthropist Sheryl Underwood as the keynote speaker. 

Johnson C. Smith University proudly celebrates its 15th president, Dr. Valerie Kinloch, on receiving the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) 2025 Scholars of Color in Education Distinguished Career Contribution Award.

At the National Association of Black Journalists Region III Conference held April 10–12 at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC, more than 100 journalists gathered for a series of dynamic discussions. Among them was a standout panel titled “How to Power Forward in Political Reporting,” moderated by Walter Smith Randolph, Executive Producer of Investigations at CBS New York.

August 6, 2025, was a momentous day that echoed the bold spirit of August 7, 1867, the day of Johnson C. Smith University’s founding, originally the Freedmen’s College of North Carolina, later Biddle Memorial Institute, Biddle University, then Johnson C. Smith University. 

In 2025, the African drummers and the robed promenade of faculty, staff, students and dignitaries signaled back to the auspicious day 158 years prior.

Johnson C. Smith University sent five students—Holiness Mhlanga, Dejha Canty, Shaun Moore, Amauri Hampton and David Santos—along with staff advisor Jerrica Turner, to Austin in mid-March to compete in the 2025 HBCU Battle of the Brains.

In honor of Social Work Month, JCSU will spotlight a student from the Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work programs each week in March. Today’s spotlight features Eliana Moultrie, an El Paso, Texas, native and a senior in JCSU’s Bachelor of Social Work program. 

Music Producer Michael Mauldin, father of hip-hop mogul Jermaine Dupri, hit the stage at JCSU as a Lyceum Engagement Series speaker in December 2024. Mauldin began the night with a sparkly video originally played in 2021, when the music maverick was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, alongside his son, Dupri.  

The JCSU Competing Members of the Debate Team – Kirksey Beaty, Ananasa Dobson Holiness Mhlanga, Shanitra Scott and Symphonie Whitted – had one of their best team performances in years at the 14th Annual North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) Ethics Bowl in Raleigh.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the Virgin Islands, Omar Sanchez struck gold in the USA, right here on Beatties Ford Road. As a sophomore international business major, Sanchez was able to acquire the Barings scholarship, securing a promised $10,000 per academic year that he is enrolled at Johnson C. Smith University.