Meet the First Black Woman to be CAS Valedictorian in More Than Two Decades
Kelsey Moore is making history.
It’s been 22 years since the College of Arts and Sciences has a black woman as its valedictorian — the same amount of time Kelsey Moore has been on this earth.
Moore, 22, didn’t know that the valedictorian position at NYU even existed until her junior year. She is now on track to a fruitful career in academia, and will be pursuing doctorate studies at Johns Hopkins University next year.
“My first grade I ever got back was a B- on a paper,” she said. “I called my mom panicking, like ‘Girl, can I do college?’”
Moore said that since that moment, she would try to be satisfied with however she performed as long as she felt like she did her best.
“When I first came to NYU, I was already in an area that was predominantly white,” Moore said. “So I already knew I had extra weight on my shoulder as a black woman and so that propelled me to continue doing my best, being the best that I could be. I knew that I would have a lot of naysayers.”
Moore, the daughter of a factory worker from South Carolina, first came to NYU with a keen interest in being a lawyer with a focus on international politics. She took her acceptance to NYU as an opportunity to get out of South Carolina and to study under the university’s prestigious international relations program, but ended up taking a different path.
“I came in knowing I wanted to do a minor in Africana Studies and those classes were the most inspirational to me,” Moore said. “By freshman year spring I completely changed my major, I was Africana Studies and Public Policy, and I’ve stuck with it, since.”
As she navigated through NYU as a newcomer, she found that her southern identity was put under scrutiny and played a big role in how she navigated academic spaces. Eventually, she poured this sentiment into her scholarship, and she decided to specialize in African-American women’s history in the 20th century. Her thesis looks at the role of gossip for black women during the Great Migration.
“I was looking to explore gossip as a geopolitical mechanism to accept their agency to imagine new pathways of freedom,” she said.
As a first-generation student, she had never thought that pursuing a career as a professor was possible, but she has been fueled by black representation in academia and mentorship from black professors.
“I’m not afraid of being in academia,” Moore said. “ I know that there are going to be challenges, especially as a black woman, a dark-skinned black woman at that, I can hear the criticism as I speak.”
However, Moore isn’t all just about her studies. She also wants you to know that her astrology chart is an Aquarius sun, a Cancer rising and a Capricorn moon.
“Some people would say that being Aquarius and Capricorn, I have no emotions,” she said. “I have emotions, I am just not showing y’all.”
Moore said that her friends claim that she has “a crazy work ethic,” which is probably why one of her main inspirations is Beyoncé.
“At the same time, that causes me to be a little bit detached and aloof from the people that do support me,” she said.
Besides Beyoncé, another idol of hers includes Saidiya Hartman, a renowned African-American historian who won the Guggenheim Fellowship for the Humanities, but Moore is also moved by the unnamed black women she comes across in her studies.
“They were living through terrible times as well but they still managed to live and raise generations that continue to move forward as well,” Moore said. “If my ancestors can do it, and I am descendant of them, I should be able to do it.”
Moore said that her grandmother and mother are the “driving forces” behind her success at school. Her grandmother went as far as to call Moore’s high school to inform them that her granddaughter is the valedictorian.
“She’s always instilled that every generation is supposed to be better than the last,” Moore said about her grandmother.
As she trails her own path of increasing the visibility of black women’s narratives in history, Moore also has advice for black girls of the future.
“Truly be unapologetic about who you are, and what you want,” she said. “Demand what you want. You dictate your path.”
Correction: April 23, 2019.
A previous version of this article stated that Moore was the first Black woman to be CAS valedictorian. She is the first in 22 years.
