ALUMNI ANGLES
Father Gregory Chisholm, S.J. Father Gregory Chisholm, S.J., is currently Pastor of St. Charles Borromeo, Resurrection and All Saints Parish in Harlem in New York City, serving a diverse congregation made up principally of persons of African descent.
AN ORATION REVISITED by Annie Reisener equal equality, and how the audience must take action in order for the nation’s ideals to match its realities.
ON THE FINAL ROUND STAGE
I
n the final round of the 1968 National Tournament, Gregory Chisholm delivered an Original Oratory entitled, “The American Lie.” He began by saying, “I speak to you this afternoon with the fear that by the end of my speech, you may see yourselves as you really are and be repulsed by it.” Gregory continued, “But more than this, I hope that you’ll have the strength to do something about it. I was told before coming
54
ROSTRUM | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020
here to be calm but forceful... I was further told that it could mean the difference between winning a trophy and losing one. Well, my friends, if that means that I must placate you, then I’ll be damned if I win a trophy.” Gregory then launched into a blazingly passionate speech about how little progress the U.S. had made since freeing slaves, the Black Power movement, how freedom does not
In the lead up to the interview for this piece, Father Gregory Chisholm, S.J., listened to his performance for the first time in more than 50 years. “I don’t remember giving it at all,” he laughs. “As I was listening to it, I was critiquing myself. But I will say, while I probably wouldn’t say it the same way, I found that it did reflect what I honestly believed. I was speaking genuinely about the ways in which America seems to be content in its lies. That is part of our culture. I remember giving other speeches with similar themes.” The 1968 National Tournament was held in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center at Macalester College in St. Paul,
Minnesota. “Orations in the final round this year were concerned with social or universal moral issues,” read the September 1968 edition of Rostrum. At the time, only four students were in finals of speech events. Pieces in the final round included “A Very Simple Story” (which “stressed the dangers of stereotype”), “The Inability of Americans to Love,” “All Will Be Quiet in Jerusalem Tonight,” and Gregory’s “The American Lie,” which took fourth place. “I don’t remember the reception to the speech,” Father Gregory says. When informed that, unlike the other speeches on the final round recording, there is no applause from the audience when he concludes, he offers: “You have to remember those years in the mid to late sixties were years of foment. There was certainly a racial divide and a divide between a youthful culture and an older culture. I was in the midwest. I wouldn’t be