--- title: Read Colson Whitehead's Speech at Connecticut College description: Author Colson Whitehead delivered the commencement speech at Connecticut College. Read his whole speech here canonical: https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-22T16:24:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:02:47.547Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Read Colson Whitehead's Speech at Connecticut College og:description: "Congratulations again on finishing Act I" og:url: https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb17843635824b632/6988ce507cdbac581fd586eb/gettyimages-673037546.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2017 Time 100 Gala - Cocktails og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Colson Whitehead's Speech at Connecticut College twitter:description: "Congratulations again on finishing Act I" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb17843635824b632/6988ce507cdbac581fd586eb/gettyimages-673037546.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colson Whitehead at Connecticut College Graduation: 'Welcome to the Complications' by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 22, 2017 4:24 PM UTC  Author Colson Whitehead attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City. Author Colson Whitehead attends the 2017 Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2017 in New York City.Jemal Countess—Getty Images for TIME by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 22, 2017 4:24 PM UTC _Author Colson Whitehead delivered the commencement speech at Connecticut College on Sunday. See a full transcript of his remarks below._ --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/"},"headline":"Colson Whitehead at Connecticut College Graduation: 'Welcome to the Complications'","datePublished":"2017-05-22T16:24:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:02:47.547Z","description":"\"Congratulations again on finishing Act I\"","url":"https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/","keywords":["Education","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb17843635824b632/6988ce507cdbac581fd586eb/gettyimages-673037546.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb17843635824b632/6988ce507cdbac581fd586eb/gettyimages-673037546.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 Time 100 Gala - Cocktails","caption":"2017 Time 100 Gala - Cocktails","creditText":"Jemal Countess—Getty Images for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4788071/colson-whitehead-the-underground-railroad-connecticut-college-commencement-graduation/","name":"Colson Whitehead at Connecticut College Graduation: 'Welcome to the Complications'"}}]}] ```