Morehouse College

Establishment In 1867, two years after the American Civil War , the Augusta Institute was founded, by William Jefferson White , an Atlanta Baptist minister and cabinetmaker (William Jefferson White's half-brother, James E. Tate, was one of the founders of Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University [ citation needed ] ), with the support of the Rev. Richard C. Coulter, a former slave from Atlanta, Georgia , and the Rev. Edmund Turney, organizer of the National Theological Institute for educating freedmen in Washington, D.C. [ 8 ] The institution was founded to educate African-American men in theology and other subjects, at Springfield Baptist Church ( Augusta, Georgia ), the oldest independent Black church in the United States. The institution moved from Augusta, Georgia, to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1879. The school received sponsorship from the American Baptist Home Mission Society , an organization that helped establish several historically Black colleges. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The institute's first president was the Rev. Joseph T. Robert (1871–1884) (father of Brigadier General Henry Martyn Robert , author of Robert's Rules of Order ). An anti-slavery Baptist minister from South Carolina and 1828 graduate of Brown University , Robert raised funds, taught the classes, and stabilized the institution. Morehouse's history 1867 Augusta Institute established [ 8 ] 1879 Institute moved to Atlanta and name changed to Atlanta Baptist Seminary [ 8 ] 1885 The seminary moved to its present location [ 8 ] 1897 The school was renamed Atlanta Baptist College [ 8 ] 1913 School renamed to Morehouse College [ 8 ] 1929 Morehouse entered into a cooperative agreement with Clark College and Spelman College (later expanded to form the Atlanta University Center ) [ 8 ] 1975 The Morehouse School of Medicine established 1981 The Morehouse School of Medicine became independent from Morehouse College

An entrance to the courtyard. In 1879, the institute moved to Atlanta and changed its name to the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. [ 8 ] It later acquired a 4-acre (1.6 ha) campus in downtown Atlanta. In 1885, Samuel T. Graves became the second president. That year the seminary moved to its present location, on land given by a prominent Baptist and industrialist, John D. Rockefeller . In 1890, George Sale became the seminary's third president. In 1899, William E. Holmes , who had been the first African-American faculty member at the school, left to become the first president of Central City College in Macon, Georgia . [ 10 ] In 1906, John Hope became the first African-American president and led the institution's growth in enrollment and academic stature. [ 8 ] 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 college was renamed Morehouse College, in honor of the Rev. Henry L. Morehouse , corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society , who had long organized Rockefeller and the Society's support for the college. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] Morehouse entered into a cooperative agreement with Clark College and Spelman College in 1929 and later expanded the association to form the Atlanta University Center . [ 8 ] Samuel H. Archer became the fifth president of the college in 1931 and chose the school colors, maroon and white, to reflect his own alma mater, Colgate University . Benjamin Mays became president in 1940. [ 8 ] Mays, who became a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. , presided over the growth in international enrollment and reputation. In the 1960s, Morehouse students were involved in the civil rights movement in Atlanta. [ 8 ] Mays's speeches shaped the development of Morehouse students during his tenure. In 1967, Hugh M. Gloster became the seventh president.

The next year, Morehouse became the third historically Black institution (HBCU) to establish a Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society. In 1975, Gloster established the Morehouse School of Medicine , which became independent from Morehouse College in 1981. Gloster also established a dual-degree program in engineering with the Georgia Institute of Technology , the University of Michigan, and Boston University. [ 11 ]

Leroy Keith Jr., was named president in 1987. In 1995, alumnus Walter E. Massey , became Morehouse's ninth president. His successor, alumnus Robert Michael Franklin Jr. was the tenth president of the college. In November 2012, alumnus John Silvanus Wilson was announced as the institution's 11th president. [ 12 ] In January 2018, David A. Thomas took office as the college's 12th president. [ 13 ] In 2006, Morehouse graduated 540 men, the largest class in its history. [ 14 ] On May 16, 2008, Joshua Packwood became the first white valedictorian to graduate in the school's 141-year history. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] In August 2008, Morehouse welcomed a total of 920 new students (770 freshmen and 150 transfer students) to its campus, one of the largest entering classes in the history of the school. [ 17 ] Morehouse celebrated several historic milestones in 2013. One century prior, in 1913, Atlanta Baptist College was renamed Morehouse College after Henry Lyman Morehouse , corresponding secretary for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. 2013 was also the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, when Morehouse graduate Martin Luther King Jr. , class of 1948, delivered his iconic " I Have a Dream " speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . The year also marked the 50th anniversary of King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail". The college also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the "A Candle in the Dark" Gala, which is an annual event that honors some of the world's leaders and raises scholarship funds for Morehouse students. The 129th Commencement in 2013 In May 2013, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president in three-quarters of a century to deliver a commencement address in Georgia when he took part in Morehouse College's 129th Commencement ceremony. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had given a summer commencement address at the University of Georgia in 1938. President Obama received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Morehouse.