According to a report from AL.com, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham is no longer welcome to attend a ceremony installing a new school president at Samford University in Birmingham because of his previous involvement with a pro-choice rally.
Meacham, a fixture on cable TV, was informed by the university that he need not show up on Nov. 3rd where he had been invited to speak on "the importance of civil discourse."
According to the report, when first invited Meacham was lauded by the university as a "skilled orator with a depth of knowledge about politics, religion and current affairs," while noting his writings "examine the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in U.S. history when hope overcame division and fear."
That was then and this is now.
AL.com reports that school president Beck Taylor disinvited Mecham in a letter citing "elements of Samford's Student Government Association."
Noting that the historian attended a protest in Texas against the GOP-dominated legislature's attempt to dismantle Roe v Wade, one student complained in her petition to disinvite him, "His beliefs and core values do not align with those of Samford University, as it is a Southern Baptist institution. Mr. Meacham is involved with raising money in support of an organization that does not value life in the same way the Christian faith does."
School president Taylor told students, "Meacham's original invitation to Samford wasn't a reflection of any university position on abortion. He also said that Meacham wasn't planning to speak about abortion."
You can read the whole report here.
