Eric / Kelvin

Eric’s yearbook photo.

The brothers Garvanne (Kelvin left, Eric right) at the Museum of the American Revolution. Philadelphia 2023.

Kelvin at graduation in 1976.

Kelvin at alumni weekend Georgetown University 2022.

01-06-2025

From Shirley Chisholm’s Brooklyn to Pennepacker Hall, Eric Garvanne arrived at Harvard in the fall of 1971 in his family’s yellow Ford Galaxy station wagon, the drivers’ door secured with a small brown extension cord. What Eric mostly remembers is his father lugging his heavy trunk on his shoulders, beaming with pride as he met Eric’s roommate and family.

The pride is understandable: Eric was the first member of the Garvanne family to attend college.  The second was his brother Kelvin, who would graduate from Georgetown. 

In this deeply affecting episode of PasstheMic75, the brothers explore how and why Eric’s time at Harvard was so impactful. 

“I found out Harvard wasn’t as racist as I thought it would be,” Eric says now. “Coming from my high school, there was a lot of violence around race. So, I came to think of racism as physical violence. When I got to Harvard, it was more about class and culture I wasn’t familiar with. That’s when I found out how racism really works.”

For example, he remembers watching a television program and finding out he was considered “a disadvantaged youth.” It stunned him. “I didn’t know!” he says. “I’ve been trying to shake that disempowering thinking for years.”

“That’s the thing about going to Harvard,” he explains. “I’m only now beginning to accept who I was and who I am. It’s only now at this late stage that I’m beginning to understand that I deserved to be there.”

Fueled with that knowledge, Eric wants future generations of Black students at Harvard to take full advantage of the opportunities he experienced and, in some cases, helped create. “Harvard really stands for something,” he says, encouraging young Black students to always “dream big.”