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Morehouse College

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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 3000 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 of the tenure-track faculty hold terminal degrees.

Along with nearby Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College, Morehouse is part of the Atlanta University Center. In the spring 2006, Morehouse graduated 540 men, one of the largest classes in its history.

Contents

History

In 1867, two years after the end of the American Civil War, the Augusta Institute was founded by William Jefferson White for the education of black men in ministry and teaching. The Augusta Institute was located in Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, the oldest independent black church in the nation. The school's first president was Rev. Dr. Joseph T. Robert.

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 the 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 Mays became president in 1940. 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.

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.

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 Tigers.

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.

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).

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

Buildings

Graves Hall, named after the second president of Morehouse College, is an honors dorm. When constructed in the 1880's, it was the tallest building in Atlanta. When the college relocated to the West End area, this building was the college, housing classrooms, dormitories, and administration offices. Now, it only houses dorm rooms. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other esteemed alumni once lived in Graves Hall.

Robert Hall, named after the first president of the college, the son of Major Robert of Robertville, South Carolina (who penned the historic Robert's Rules of Order). 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. Sale Hall 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 was made to house the early students of Morehouse in religious and commencement proceedings. It is call the Chapel of the Inward Journey. Today, Sale Hall Chapel is still used for recitals, pagents, and student government association election debates.

Hope Hall, named after 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.

Merrill Hall, named after a Chairman of the college's Board of Trustees, Merril Hall became the Chemistry building located near Hope Hall. Merrill Hall also houses a lounge. The 2000's saw Merril Hall undergo a renovation that doubled its size. Its new corridor is called Technology Tower.

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 houses the college's History, English, Language and Music departments.

Dansby Hall houses the school's Physics department.

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

Hubert Hall is another freshman dorm, named after an acting president.

Douglass Hall, originally built as the school's student center. The building holds computer labs. It also houses the college's archives.

Dubois Hall is another freshman dorm, named after W.E. DuBois.

White Hall is a freshman dorm, named after one of the college's founders.

Mays Hall was named after the sixth persident of Morehouse College, Benjamin Mays. It holds dorm room and is the headquarters for resident life for the college.

Chivers Hall is the cafeteria of the college. It seats 600 people and is attached to Mays 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 (a Clark Atlanta University structure.) King Chapel holds 2501 people. It is home to the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Reconcilliation Institute.

Wheeler Hall houses the Mathematics and Sociology departments.

Nabrit-Mapp-Mcbay Hall was erected in 1987. The building is also know as Bio-Chem from a plaque at the corridor stating that the buliding was built to house the Biology and Chemistry classrooms.

Kilgore Center is the official campus student center, though a sectioned off area also holds dorm rooms.

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

Purdue Hall is a dormitory built around the time of the 1996 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.

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 department as well as many other departments. It also has a 500 seat auditorium. The building was completed in 2005.

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.
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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." 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.

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. It is one of two historically black colleges in the country to produce a Rhodes Scholar. The school's first Rhodes Scholar was named in 1994, the second in 2001, and the third in 2004. Morehouse has also been home to four Fulbright Scholars, one in 1995, another in 2004 and two in 2006.

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. This heavily prized collection includes King's 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Notable alumni

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

Trivia

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".

Footnotes

External links

 

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