A Penn State graduation photo of a different sort will be held this Sunday on the Old Main steps. A black graduates picture will be taken on May 3 at 1 p.m. to celebrate the black graduates and remember a time when black students were banned from institutions of higher education.

In an e-mail, Penn State’s president for its chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, Sheryl Edmondson, invited all black graduates to join the picture.

“In honor of the plethora of Black students at Penn State that will be graduating this semester we would like to invite you all (graduating seniors) to take a group photo with your fellow grads and faculty and staff members,” it reads.

According to Edmonson, the idea came from senior Terrell Finner after a GroupMe conversation regarding the lack of a commencement ceremony specifically for black graduates despite the fact that they exist at other universities.

“It’s an opportunity for us to express our solidarity and exude such a positive image in light of all the negative media attention that blacks are consistently given,” she said. “The photo sort of reshapes the narrative of who we are as a people and what we can obtain.”

The students chose Old Main after Finner proposed the classic backdrop which, she said, represents a time when blacks weren’t allowed at the university.

“I am attending this event because I believe that it is important to highlight the black students here that are graduating, especially since there are so very few of us,” she explained. “In addition, I feel as though it is a great opportunity for all of us seniors to celebrate with one another particularly because there are so many separate commencement ceremonies.”