Dear McDonogh Community,
In keeping with our commitment to provide an equitable and inclusive community for all, I want you to know that we have begun the important work of evaluating the School’s practices and traditions by taking a critical look at our Founder’s Day ceremony.
The first Founder’s Day was held on November 21, 1874, which marked the School’s first anniversary. It was commemorated with a full day of activities including a morning chapel service, a military drill, lectures and speeches about John McDonogh’s life and the School’s founding, and a faculty/alumni/student football game. The day concluded with a large turkey dinner in celebration of Thanksgiving.
In addition to Founder’s Day, each spring beginning on May 30, 1884, students participated in the John McDonogh Day ceremony. According to John McDonogh’s wishes, they placed flowers at his grave and sculpted memorial, which was located in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore City (the sculpted memorial was commissioned by the City Council of Baltimore to honor McDonogh’s philanthropy to create a farm school for underprivileged boys). In May of 1946, after John McDonogh’s grave and the sculpted memorial were moved to campus, the ceremony was held at the School for the first time. Students laid flowers at his grave and placed a wreath in Tagart Memorial Chapel honoring deceased faculty. When the memorial honoring alumni who died in World War I and World War II was completed in 1946, a wreath was placed there as well. In May of 1954, the School began the tradition of announcing names of alumni, faculty, staff, and trustees who had passed in the previous year—ringing the Chapel bell and placing a flower for each on the John McDonogh monument. In the late 1960s, the ceremony became a more somber event and involved less student participation. In the 1980s, the administration chose to combine Founder’s Day and the John McDonogh Day ceremony and hold what we know as Founder’s Day in October.
It is now time for a new vision of this important tradition that honestly acknowledges the complicated legacy of John McDonogh, including his history as an enslaver. Rather than being a unifying moment for our community, the current ceremony has caused emotional pain and confusion for our Black students, faculty, staff, and alumni, many of whom have shared their raw feelings and experiences about this tradition with me and others over the past few months.
Clearly, the current ritual is not congruent with who we are as an institution nor does it honor the core tenets of our School’s Character Compass: Honesty, Respect, Kindness, Responsibility, and Service. Therefore, beginning this fall, we will be instituting a new annual tradition that uplifts all members of the McDonogh community.
The ceremony, which will be renamed Dedication Day, was created under the thoughtful leadership of Bridget Collins ’90, The Charles W. Britton Director of Character and Service, and with valuable insight from Board President Rob Young ’86, Director of Equity and Inclusion Lana Bates, and a diverse group of alumni, faculty, staff, and students. The name derives from the “Dedication Hymn,” a beloved school hymn sung since the 1930s, that emphasizes gratitude for “all of those who’ve gone before us.” The sacred ceremony will take place on Childs Memorial Terrace, appropriately overlooking the hill that our first students (21 boys) marched up in 1873 to start the long legacy of McDonogh School.
The Dedication Day ceremony will maintain our tradition of fostering gratitude by recognizing John McDonogh’s bequest and vision for our School, as well as the contributions of his enslaved people and the Indigenous people who once lived on our land. There will be reflections, student readers, remembrance of each member of the McDonogh Family who died in the previous year, the playing of “Taps,” and the placing of memorial wreaths (Tagart Memorial Chapel, the John McDonogh Monument, Memorial Court, and a site honoring the enslaved people of John McDonogh). And, of course, the “Dedication Hymn” will be sung by the Upper School Choir.
In years to come, Dedication Day will not simply be a ceremony. It will be a day committed to the history of McDonogh School and a more authentic look at John McDonogh’s complex life. The day will also focus on teaching students how to have honest, civil dialogue and be compassionate listeners and critical thinkers. Each division will develop age-appropriate Dedication Day programming with the help of our Archivist and our History and Social Studies Departments.
Dedication Day will be held annually during the month of October. This year, while we cannot gather on Childs Memorial Terrace as a community due to COVID-19 restrictions, we will celebrate Dedication Day on October 22 with a recorded ceremony that students will view with classmates and teachers during the school day. A link to the recording will be shared with family members of McDonogh alumni, faculty, staff, and trustees who passed away in the last year, and it will be posted in a news story on our website for our greater McDonogh community.
In closing, I want to thank all those who helped to develop Dedication Day. The honest and frank feedback has led to a new tradition that will represent truth and gratitude—one that will unite us and strengthen our deep sense of community on campus for generations to come.
With respect,
