Morehouse College

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Morehouse College
Motto	Et Facta Est Lux (Latin translation: "And There Was Light")
Established	1867
Type	Private, men only
President	Walter E. Massey [1]
Students	3,000
Location	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Campus	Urban, park 61 acres (247,000 m²)
Annual Fees	$27,632 (2006–2007) [2]
Nickname	Maroon Tigers
Website	http://www.morehouse.edu/

Morehouse College is a private, all-male, historically black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Located on a 61-acre (247,000 m²) campus, the college has an enrollment of 3,000 students and is one of four remaining all-male colleges in the United States. The student-faculty ratio of the campus is 16:1 and 100% of the school's tenure-track faculty hold terminal degrees.

Along with Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse School of Medicine and nearby women's college Spelman College, Morehouse is part of the Atlanta University Center. In 2006, Morehouse graduated 605 men, one of the largest classes in its history. Morehouse's sister school, Bennett College, is located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

[edit] History

A view of an entrance to the campus' courtyard.

In 1867, two years after the end of the American Civil War, the Augusta Institute was founded by William Jefferson White, an Augusta Baptist minister and cabinetmaker, with the support of the Rev. Richard C. Coulter, a former slave from Augusta, Georgia, and the Rev. Edmund Turney, organizer of the National Theological Institute for educating freedmen in Washington, D.C. The institution was founded for the education of black men in the fields of ministry and education. The Augusta Institute was located in Springfield Baptist Church, the oldest independent black church in the nation. The school's first president was Rev. Dr. Joseph T. Robert, (son of Maj. H.M. Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order).

In 1879, the institute moved to the basement of the Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta and changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary. The seminary later gained a four-acre campus in downtown Atlanta. In 1885, Dr. Samuel T. Graves became the school's second president. The same year, the seminary moved to its present location, which was a gift from John D. Rockefeller. In 1890, Dr. George Sale became the seminary's third president and in 1897, the school was renamed Atlanta Baptist College.

Dr. John Hope became the school's first African-American president in 1906 and led the institution's growth in size and academic stature. He envisioned an academically rigorous college that would be the antithesis to Booker T. Washington's view of agricultural and trade-focused education for African-Americans. In 1913, the school was again renamed Morehouse College in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, the corresponding secretary of the Northern Baptist Home Missions Society. Morehouse entered into a cooperative agreement with Clark College and Spelman College in 1929 and later expanded the association to create the Atlanta University Center.

Dr. Samuel H. Archer was named as the fifth president of the college in 1931 and selected the school colors, maroon and white, to reflect his own alma mater, Colgate University. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays became president in 1940. Mays was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College and received graduate degrees from the University of Chicago. Mays, who would become a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., presided over the school's growth in international enrollment and reputation. Mays also served as founding advisor to Psi Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. During the 1960s, Morehouse students became involved in the civil rights movement in Atlanta. Mays' profound speeches were instrumental in shaping the personal development of Morehouse students during his tenure.

In 1967, Dr. Hugh M. Gloster became the seventh president. In 1968, the school's Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society was founded. Gloster established the Morehouse School of Medicine in 1975, which became independent from Morehouse College in 1981.

Dr. Leroy Keith, Jr was named president in 1987. In 1995, alumnus Dr. Walter E. Massey, became Morehouse's ninth president. In 2006, Dr. Massey announced his retirement to be effective at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year. After serving his alma mater for over 10 years and spearheading a $120 million capital campaign, Dr. Massey felt that it was time for him to step down.

[edit] Sports, Clubs, and Traditions

In sports, Morehouse is affiliated with the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Division II. The mascot is the Maroon Tiger.

The Morehouse College House of Funk Marching Band is known for their halftime performances which combine dance and marching with music from various genres, including rap, traditional marching band music, and pop music. They have performed at Super Bowl XVIII, the Today Show, and Atlanta Falcons games. The band was also featured in the film, Drumline'.

2005-2006 Morehouse College Mock Trial Team after they obtained an "Honorable Mention" at the American Mock Trial Association's 2006 National Championship Tournament

Founded in 1911, the Morehouse College Glee Club has a long and impressive history and has performed at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, President Jimmy Carter's inauguration, Super Bowl XXVIII, and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Glee Club's international performances include tours in Africa, Russia, Poland and the Caribbean. The group also appeared on the soundtrack for the movie School Daze, directed by Morehouse alum Spike Lee (Class of 1979).

Morehouse College Glee Club in concert

The College's student-run newspaper, The Maroon Tiger, has won several state and national awards.

In 2005, Morehouse College became a member of the American Mock Trial Association.^[1] The school is one of only four competing teams to come from a historically black college and is also the only all-male team in the MTA. During the 2005-2006 Mock Trial season, Morehouse earned an Honorable Mention while competing in the sixty team field at the National Championship Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.^[2]

[edit] Buildings

Graves Hall, Century Campus, and Mays' Tomb

Graves Hall, named after the second president of Morehouse College, is an honors dormitory. When constructed in the 1880s, it was the tallest building in Atlanta. When the college relocated to the West End area, student housing, classrooms, and administration offices were all contained within the building.

Robert Hall, named after Joseph T. Robert, the first president of the college. Robert Hall was erected to be the first dormitory of the college. When built, there was a cafeteria in its basement. Today the basement houses a post office.

Sale Hall, named after the third president,was built to contain classrooms. Today, it is the department building for Morehouse's Religion and Philosophy courses. On the second floor, a small auditorium, called the Chapel of the Inward Journey, was used for religious and commencement proceedings. Today, the chapel is still used for recitals, pageants, and student government association election debates.

Historic Chapel Bell outside of Sale Hall.

Hope Hall, named after John Hope, the fourth president of Morehouse College. When erected, it was referred to as the Science Building, then later the Biology Building. Through the years, the building became too small for classroom use and now holds laboratories for departments that are in other buildings. Hope Hall includes the offices of the Public Health Sciences Institute.

Merrill Hall, named after Charles E. Merrill Jr., a chairman of the college's Board of Trustees, became the Chemistry building. Located near Hope Hall, Merrill Hall also houses a lounge. The 2000s saw Merrill Hall undergo a renovation that doubled its size. Its new corridor is called John Hopps Technology Tower, which houses the Computer Science department.

Archer Hall, named after the fifth president of Morehouse College. Archer Hall holds the college's recreational facilities such as its gymnasium, swimming pool, and game room. The gymnasium seats 1000 people and was used by the college's basketball team before the Forbes Arena was built.

Brawley Hall, named after Benjamin Griffith Brawley, it houses the college's History, English, Language, Music, and Art departments.

Dansby Hall houses the school's Physics, Psychology, and Mathematics departments.

LLC or Living Learning Center (formerly Thurman Hall) is one of the school's freshman dorms.

Hubert Hall is a freshman dorm named after Charles D. Hubert, who was an acting president from 1938 to 1940.

Douglass Hall, originally built as the school's student center. Also known as LRC (Learning Resource Center), the building holds the college archives and a computer lab.

Du Bois Hall is a freshman dorm named after philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois.

White Hall is a freshman dorm, named after the college's founder.

Mays Hall was named after the sixth president of Morehouse College, Benjamin Mays. It houses dorm rooms and is the headquarters for residence life for the college.

Chivers Hall/Lane Hall is the cafeteria of the college. It seats 600 people and is attached to Mays Hall. The Sadie Mays lounge, named for the wife of Dr. Mays, connects Mays Hall and Chivers Hall.

Martin Luther King International Chapel/Gloster Hall was built in 1978 as the new auditorium and administration building for Morehouse College, replacing Sale and Harkness halls (Harkness is now a Clark Atlanta University structure.) King Chapel holds 2501 people. It is home to the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Reconciliation Institute.

Wheeler Hall is a building used primarily by the Political Science and Sociology departments.

Nabrit-Mapp-McBay Hall was erected in 1987. The building is also known as Bio-Chem from a plaque at the corridor stating that the building was built to house the Biology and Chemistry classrooms. It now holds the Biology department. It was named forr distinguished science professors Samuel Nabrit, Frederick Mapp, and Henry McBay.

Kilgore Campus Center.

Kilgore Campus Center houses administrative offices, as well as several seminar rooms and lounges. A separate area of the building serves as a dormitory. The exterior of the building serves as a special meeting point, especially for the announcement of student government election results at high noon.

Brazeal Hall is a dormitory built in 1991. It housed athletes during the time of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Brazeal Hall originally housed upperclassmen, though it currently serves as a freshmen dorm.

Perdue Hall is a dormitory built around the time of the 1996 Summer Olympics. It housed athletes during the 1996 Olympic events.

Forbes Arena is a 5,700 capacity seat arena, built for the Olympic games. It is now the main gymnasium for the college's basketball team and holds many events year round.

B.T Harvey Stadium/Edwin Moses Track is a 9000 capacity seat stadium built in 1983. At the time of its completion, it was the largest on-campus black private stadium in the nation -Source 1983 Morehouse Torch (Yearbook)

Otis Moss Jr. Residential Suites are apartment, studio, and suite dwellings built in 2003. "The Suites" were renamed in spring 2006, after Otis Moss Jr. ’56, former chair of Morehouse’s Board of Trustees.

Leadership Center houses the Business Administration and Economics departments as well as other offices. It also has a 500-seat auditorium. The building was completed in 2005.

[edit] Monuments

Several previous presidents of the college have grave sites on-campus to honor their legacies.

• A statue of Benjamin Mays is positioned atop a marble monument situated in front of Graves Hall. This monument includes the graves of President Mays and his wife, Sadie Mays. Behind the graves are memoirs and a time capsule set to be opened in May 2095.

• Former president Hugh Gloster is buried near the building named after him.

• A bronze statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. stands to the left of King Chapel. Inscribed in the base of the statue are the words of Dr. King.

• An obelisk named in honor of Howard Thurman stands to the right of King Chapel. The base of the Thurman Obelisk contains the ashes of Dr. Thurman and his wife. The obelisk also houses a bell which chimes every hour to the tune of "Dear Old Morehouse," the school alma mater.

[edit] Prestige

Graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta, ranked three times as the most prestigious historically black college in the nation, proceed through campus during a baccalaureate ceremony.

Ranked #1 three times in a row by Black Enterprise Magazine as the best school for African Americans for undergraduate study, its prestige has led to it often being dubbed as the "black Harvard University" or "Harvard of the South."^[3][4] This little tidbit has led many of its students to joke with T-shirts that Harvard is instead the "Morehouse of the North", as some find the idea of crediting a predominantly black institution as being like a predominantly white one to be patronizing.^[5]

The college was rated by The Wall Street Journal as #29 out of the top 50 "feeder schools" for elite graduate study, beating both Emory University and the University of California, Berkeley in a 2004 study.^[6] It is one of two historically black colleges in the country to produce a Rhodes Scholar. The school's first Rhodes Scholar, Nima Warfield, was named in 1994, the second in 2001,^[7] and the third in 2004. Morehouse has also been home to four Fulbright Scholars, one in 1995, another in 2004 and two in 2006.^[8]

Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in front of King Chapel

With Martin Luther King Jr. among its many prominent alumni, Morehouse is the only college in the nation to have a graduate honored with a federal holiday (See Martin Luther King Day). Such is the only United States federal holiday commemorating an African American and one of only three to commemorate an individual person. A further noteworthy distinction is that this is the sole federal holiday in the history of the United States dedicated to a person who has never held public office.

On Friday, June 23, 2006 it was publicly announced that Morehouse College would become the home to a 7,000-piece collection of original documents written by Martin Luther King, Jr. The set was valued by the Library of Congress at being worth between $28 to $30 million dollars. King's papers were originally scheduled by his family to be auctioned off to the general public at Sotheby's on June 30th, but in an astonishing last minute effort, private donors in Atlanta intervened and offered a pre-auction bid at $32 million. On June 29, it was announced by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a key catalyst in the buyout, that a new civil rights museum would be built in the city to make the documents available for research, public access and exhibits. On October 24, 2006, it was reported that Coca Cola would be donating a $10 million lot worth of prime real estate in order to assist with the development of the project. This heavily prized collection includes King's 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Graduates of the school are often targeted for recruitment by top firms such as Citigroup, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Lehman Brothers[3], Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Price Waterhouse Coopers. As one of its official target schools, Morehouse is also part of the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders program.

[edit] Notable alumni

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Morehouse College's most prominent alumnus and graduate, class of 1948.

• Lerone Bennett, Jr. '49, Historian, author and senior editor for the Johnson Publishing Group (JET, Ebony, etc.)
• Sanford Bishop '68, U.S. Congressman (Georgia)
• Julian Bond '71, Civil rights leader, former Georgia state representative & Chairman of the NAACP
• Claude Black Jr., 1930's, First black Mayor Pro Tem of San Antonio, Texas, civil rights leader, pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in San Antonio.
• Calvin O. Butts '72, Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York, NY; President, SUNY College at Old Westbury
• Herman Cain '67, 2004 Georgia Republican US Senate candidate and former Godfather's Pizza CEO
• Donn Clendenon '56, New York Mets Outfielder and 1969 World Series MVP
• Julius E. Coles '64, President of Africare; former US ambassador to Senegal
• Samuel Dubois Cook '48, Former president of Dillard University; former member of the National Council on Humanities; first African American professor at Duke University
• Chester A. Davenport '63, Managing Director of Georgetown Partners; first African American graduate of University of Georgia School of Law
• Robert C. Davidson, Jr. '67, Chairman and CEO of Surface Protection Industries; Member of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees
• Dr. Michael Lomax '68, President and CEO of the United Negro College Fund and former president of Dillard University
• Henry W. Foster, Jr. '54, Professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Meharry Medical College; physician; former US Surgeon General nominee
• Hugh M. Gloster, Sr. '31, President emeritus of Morehouse College (1967-1987); first alumnus to be the college president
• Lt. Gen. James R. Hall '57, USA (Ret.), Retired lieutenant general of the US Army; Former President of the National Alumni Association of Morehouse College
• Dr. Robert R. Jennings '72, President, Alabama A&M University
• Earl F. Hilliard '64, former U.S. Congressman (Alabama)
• Donald R. Hopkins, Sr. '62, Associate executive director of health programs for the Carter Center
• M. William Howard, Jr. '68, Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church; retired president of New York Theological Seminary; former president of the World Council of Churches
• Maynard Jackson '56, First African American Mayor of Atlanta, GA
• Samuel L. Jackson '72, actor

David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General, class of 1963.

• Charles H. James, III '81, President & CEO of C.H. James & Company
• Howard E. Jeter '70, past U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria; former U.S. ambassador to Botswana; EVP of Good Works International
• Arthur E. Johnson '68, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin Information Services Sector
• Mordecai Wyatt Johnson '11, First black president of Howard University
• Robert E. Johnson '48, Former executive editor and associate publisher of JET magazine
• Tobe Johnson, Jr., Ph.D '54, First African American to earn a Ph.D degree in Political Science from Columbia University; Avalon Professor of Political Science at Morehouse College; author
• Leroy Keith '61, Eighth President of Morehouse College; Parter at Stonington Partners, Inc.; former Chairman & CEO of Carson Products Company
• Martin Luther King Jr. '48, Nobel Laureate and civil rights leader
• Spike Lee '79, film producer-director
• Miles Marshall Lewis '93, author
• Walter E. Massey '58, Director of the National Science Foundation under President George H.W. Bush, former Provost of the University of California System, and current President of Morehouse College
• Edwin Moses '78, Olympic gold medalist, sports administrator, and diplomat
• Otis Moss, Jr. '56, Pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland; former chairman of Morehouse College Board of Trustees
• James Nabrit Jr.,JD '23, former president of Howard University. Brother of Samuel Nabrit, Ph.D and father of James Nabrit.
• Samuel Nabrit, Ph.D '25, first alumnus to earn a doctorate and first black to earn a Ph.D. from Brown University, where he became first black university trustee; former president of Texas Southern University.
• Bill G. Nunn III '76, notable stage and film actor
• Major R. Owens '56, U.S. Congressman (New York)
• Roderic Pettigrew '72, Physician and nuclear physicist; Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
• David Satcher '63, 16th U.S. Surgeon General, former president of Morehouse School of Medicine.
• Bakari Sellers, '05, defeated 26-year-veteran Thomas Rhoad in a 2006 South Carolina House race.^[13][14]
• Louis W. Sullivan '54, President emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine; former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Howard Thurman '23, world-famous theologian and valedictorian of his graduating class while at Morehouse.
• Saul Williams '94, poet, preacher, actor, rapper, singer and musician
• Charles Vert Willie '48, distinguished professor of education and urban studies at Harvard University

[edit] Trivia

Obelisk in front of King Chapel dedicated to Howard Thurman, world famous theologian and civil rights leader.

• According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, when Debbie Allen became the director-producer of Bill Cosby's television show, A Different World (which dealt with the life of students at the fictional historically Black college, Hillman, and ran for six seasons on NBC), Allen, herself a graduate of historically black Howard University, drew from her college experiences in an effort to accurately reflect in the show the social and political life on black campuses. Moreover, Allen instituted a yearly spring trip to Atlanta where series writers visited two of the nation's leading black colleges, Morehouse and Spelman. During these visits, ideas for several of the episodes emerged from meetings with students and faculty".^[15]

• In 1995, PBS ran a documentary, titled The Morehouse Men, which gave a rare insight to the inner-workings of Morehouse's campus life through the eyes of its students.^[16]

• Archer Hall, B.T. Harvey Stadium, and the exterior of Graves Hall are featured in the Spike Lee film School Daze.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Related external links

• Official Morehouse College Website
• Atlanta University Center Website

[edit] Other sites

• American Mock Trial Association Website
• Perjuries.com (College Mock Trial Message Forum)
• Black Colleges of Atlanta (College History Series)