From students draping themselves in the Palestinian flag to many others walking out, the Morehouse College graduation was a ceremony of resistance and protest — with President Joe Biden as the commencement speaker.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, students at the all-male Atlanta-based HBCU — along with many other higher learning institutions — have not only urged Biden to call for a cease-fire, but also for their institutions to disclose and divest from companies with financial investments to military companies connected to Israel.

Morehouse has yet to do so.

During the Morehouse graduation on Saturday, Biden told graduates that he is “working around the clock” for an immediate ceasefire.

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” Biden said in his speech.

While Biden said that he hears students who have been protesting across the country in support of Palestine, his actions have not seemed to match his words. Israel has now killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, at least 15,000 of them children.

Many students protested during Biden’s commencement speech; one graduate stood with their fist raised and back turned, seven turned their backs as he spoke, some walked out, one student draped a Palestinian flag across his back and others wore keffiyehs. Protesters carried signs outside the ceremony that said “Free Palestine,” “Save the Children’’ and “Ceasefire Now” as police on bikes kept watch.

The New York Times reported that Biden’s speech was largely uninterrupted and when he finished, attendees in the VIP section chanted, “Four more years.”

Morehouse valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher gave a speech calling for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza strip,” though he did not name Biden in his remarks.

“It is only right for the class of 2024 to utilize any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice,” Fletcher said in his speech.

As applause filled the room from both the audience and Biden — who also shook Fletcher’s hand, after Fletcher said, “From the comfort of our homes, we watch an unprecedented number of civilians mourn the loss of men, women and children, while calling for the release of all hostages.”

Leading up to the graduation, Morehouse faced backlash for inviting Biden as the commencement speaker.

Some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter condemning administrators and solicited signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind the invitation.

The letter claimed that Biden’s approach to Israel amounted to support of genocide in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse’s most famous graduate.

Even Flethcer quotes the civil rights leader in his speech, “Dr. King’s legacy as a leader of civil rights is endowed with his tenacious battle against poverty, racism and war. Dr. King was a global philanthropist of social justice, believing that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere.”

Students part of the Atlanta University Center Students for Justice in Palestine, an association of Atlanta-based HBCUs organizing for Black and Palestinian liberation, provided resources for students wanting to protest the Morehouse graduation and held a solidarity graduation celebration for graduating Morehouse, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University Pro-Palestinan student activists.

Even Morehouse faculty attempted to stop the college from awarding Biden an honorary doctorate.

Around 38 faculty members voted against giving the president an honorary doctorate, while 50 voted in favor of the decision. Around a dozen faculty members abstained from voting.

Morehouse nonetheless awarded Biden an honorary doctor of laws degree on Saturday.