Morehouse College
Located in Atlanta, Georgia, Morehouse College is the only historically Black college for men, with a rich and unique history of delivering an exceptional educational experience that meets the intellectual, moral, and social needs of students representing more than 35 states and 17 countries. In 1867, two years after the Civil War ended, Augusta Institute was established at Silver Bluff Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. Founded in 1787, Springfield Baptist is the oldest independent African American church in the United States. The school’s primary purpose was to prepare Black men for ministry and teaching. Today, Augusta Institute is Morehouse College, located on a 66-acre campus in Atlanta.
Morehouse is the nation’s top producer of Black males who continue their education and receive doctorates. The National Science Foundation also ranked Morehouse as the No. 1 producer of Black men who receive doctorates in education, life and physical sciences, math and computer sciences, psychology and social sciences, as well as humanities and the arts. Morehouse currently has more than 17,000 alumni.
Morehouse received full accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1957 and a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1968. The Division of Business and Economics was accredited by the American Association of Schools and Colleges of Business (AACSB), making Morehouse one of only a handful of liberal arts colleges with both AASCB accreditation and a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Morehouse is the top producer of Rhodes Scholars among Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
History
Augusta Institute was founded by the Rev. William Jefferson White, an Augusta Baptist minister, cabinetmaker, and journalist, with the encouragement 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 Rev. Dr. Joseph T. Robert, trained minister, physician, and the father of the author of Robert’s Rules of Order, was appointed the Institute’s first President by William Jefferson White.
In 1879, Augusta Institute was invited by the Rev. Frank Quarles to move to the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta and changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary. Later, the Seminary moved to a 4-acre lot near the Richard B. Russell Federal Building site now stands in downtown Atlanta. Following Robert’s death in 1884, David Foster Estes, a professor at the Seminary, served as the institution’s first Acting President.
In 1885, when Dr. Samuel T. Graves was named the second President, the institution relocated to its current site in Atlanta’s West End community. The campus encompasses a Civil War historic site, where Confederate soldiers staged a determined resistance to Union forces during William Tecumseh Sherman’s siege of Atlanta in 1864. The land was a gift from John D. Rockefeller. In 1897, Atlanta Baptist Seminary became Atlanta Baptist College during the administration of Dr. George Sale, a Canadian who served as the third and youngest President from 1890 to 1906.
A new era, characterized by expanded academic offerings and increased physical facilities, dawned when Acting President John Hope became the fourth President in 1906. A pioneer in education and recognized as the first civil rights president in the American Academy, he was also the College’s first African American President. Hope, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, encouraged an intellectual climate comparable to what he had known at his alma mater and openly challenged Booker T. Washington’s view that education for African Americans should emphasize vocational and agricultural skills.
Atlanta Baptist College, already a leader in preparing African Americans for teaching and the ministry, expanded its curriculum and established educating leaders for all areas of American life. In addition to attracting many talented faculty and administrators, Hope contributed much to the institution we know today. Upon the death of the College’s founder in 1913, Atlanta Baptist College was named Morehouse College in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, the corresponding secretary of the Northern Baptist Home Mission Society.
Dr. Samuel H. Archer became the fifth President of the College in 1931 and headed the institution during the Great Depression. He gave the school its colors, maroon and white, the same as those of his alma mater, Colgate University. Archer retired in 1937. Dr. Charles D. Hubert served as the third Acting President until 1940 when Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays became the sixth President of Morehouse College.
A nationally noted educator and a mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘48, Mays is recognized as the architect of Morehouse’s international reputation for excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service. During the presidency of Mays, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College and the University of Chicago, the number of faculty members grew, and those holding doctoral degrees increased from two to 34 out of 65 teachers. The College earned global recognition as scholars from other countries joined the faculty, an increasing number of international students enrolled, and fellowships and scholarships for study abroad became available.
In 1967, Dr. Hugh Morris Gloster ‘31 was selected by Dr. Mays to become the first alumnus to serve as President of the College. Under his leadership, Morehouse strengthened its Board of Trustees, conducted a successful $20-million fundraising campaign, grew the endowment from $3 million to more than $29 million, and added 12 buildings to the campus, including the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. became the first Dean of the Chapel in 1979. Morehouse established a dual-degree program in engineering with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and Boston University. Gloster founded the Morehouse School of Medicine, which became an independent institution in 1981. He appointed Dr. Louis Wade Sullivan ‘54, its first dean; Sullivan later became the school’s first President.
In 1987, Dr. Leroy Keith Jr. ‘61 was named eighth President of Morehouse. The College’s endowment increased to more than $60 million during the Keith administration. The Nabrit-Mapp-McBay science building was completed, the Thomas Kilgore Jr. Campus Center and two dormitories were built, and Hope Hall was rebuilt. In 1994, Nima A. Warfield, a member of the graduating class that year, was named the College’s first U.S. Rhodes Scholar. Under Dr. Keith’s leadership, the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala was founded in 1989 to raise scholarship funds.
In October 1994, Wiley Abron Perdue ‘57, vice president for business affairs, was appointed the fourth Acting President of Morehouse. Under his leadership, national memorials were erected to honor Dr. Benjamin E. Mays and internationally noted theologian Dr. Howard W. Thurman ‘23. Perdue launched an initiative to upgrade the College’s academic and administrative computer information systems, finalized plans to build a dormitory, and undertook the construction of a 5,700-seat gymnasium to provide a basketball venue for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Today, this arena is named for the longtime basketball coach Franklin L. Forbes.
On June 1, 1995, Dr. Walter Eugene Massey ‘58 was named the ninth President of Morehouse College. A noted physicist and university administrator, Massey called on the Morehouse community to renew its longstanding commitment to a culture of excellence. Before joining the College, Massey held several notable positions, including Dean of the College and professor of physics at Brown University, professor of physics and vice president for research at the University of Chicago, director of the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, and senior vice president and provost of the University of California System. After leaving Morehouse, he served as chairman of the Bank of America and as President-and currently as chancellor emeritus-of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Under Massey’s leadership, the College embraced his vision of becoming one of the nation’s finest liberal arts colleges and accepted the challenge of providing students with a top-quality, 21st-century education. Morehouse expanded its dual-degree program in natural sciences with Georgia Tech, launched the Center for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics with a $6.7-million U.S. Defense Department grant, and established a new African American studies program and a Center for International Studies named for former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.
The physical infrastructure was also significantly enhanced. Construction was completed on Davidson House Center for Excellence, which serves as the President’s official residence. In 2005, a new Leadership Center was opened with a comprehensive conference center, the Executive Conference Center. Other additions included the John H. Hopps Technology Tower, a 500-car parking deck, and an expanded campus bookstore. Renovations were made to several residential halls, classroom buildings, Archer Hall Recreation Center, Chivers-Lane Dining Hall, and the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
In June 2006, the College completed Morehouse’s most ambitious capital campaign-raising a record $112 million, which exceeded the Campaign’s goal of $105 million. The same year, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin raised $34 million to Morehouse College for the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Today, Morehouse is the permanent custodian of this coveted collection, which includes more than 13,000 hand-written notes, sermons, letters, books, and other artifacts belonging to the College’s most noted alumnus, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘48.
On July 1, 2007, the Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin Jr. ‘75 was appointed the 10th President of Morehouse College. The former President of the Interdenominational Theological Center had previously served as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at the Candler School of Theology and senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, both at Emory University. He was a program officer in the Human Rights and Social Justice Program at the Ford Foundation. He served as Theologian-in-Residence for the Chautauqua Institution, both in New York.
During his tenure, Franklin led the institution forward with his vision of the “Morehouse Renaissance,” further elevating public confidence in the College’s continuing stature as a premier institution providing a high-quality education along with enhancing the intellectual and moral dimension of Morehouse’s mission and mystique. In part, he accomplished this by establishing the concept of the “Five Wells,” an idea to cultivate men of Morehouse as “Renaissance men with a social conscience and global perspective” who are well-read, well-spoken, well-traveled, well-dressed, and well-balanced.
In a $20-million project initiated by Massey, Franklin oversaw the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center and Music Academic Building, a 75,000 square-foot facility named after the legendary musician.
Franklin led and supported cultivation efforts-such as establishing the Renaissance Commission, a blue-ribbon group of 150 influential volunteer stakeholders-that increased the number of new donors by 4,500. The College had generated over $68 million in institutional funds, $33 million during the silent phase of the comprehensive capital campaign, and $60 million in restricted funds from federal sources, including congressional appropriations and competitive federal grants.
Dr. Willis Sheftall Jr. ‘64 served as the fifth Acting President until January 2013.
On January 28, 2013, Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ‘79, an accomplished university administrator, professor, and former executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, stepped into office as the College’s 11th President. Under his leadership, the College improved student achievement across various metrics. A champion for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) initiatives for Morehouse students, he increased the College’s private gifts, grants, and contracts.
Wilson played a pivotal role in bringing President Barack Obama to Morehouse as the Commencement speaker in 2013 and, in 2015, hosting Vice President Joseph Biden.
President Wilson served the College for four years, ending his tenure on April 7, 2017.
William James Taggart, a graduate of Howard and Harvard universities, assumed the role of the sixth Acting President of the College after serving as the chief operating officer of Morehouse since 2015. With over 30 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, higher education, boutique firms, and federal government agencies, Taggart distinguished himself as a results-driven leader in the public and private sectors.
Tragically, just two months after his appointment, Taggart suddenly passed away on June 8, 2017. Acting Provost Michael Hodge then served as the seventh Acting President of Morehouse College.
On June 26, 2017, Harold Martin Jr. ‘02 left the Morehouse Board of Trustees temporarily to accept an appointment as the eighth Acting President of Morehouse College. The attorney and business consultant, who has an extensive background in advising senior executives at higher education institutions and Fortune 500 companies, served the College until December 31, 2017. Martin set campus-wide priorities to improve accountability, boost enrollment, increase the graduation rate, and highlight the contributions of young alumni. He guided a rebranding and expansion of the Office of Alumni Engagement to enhance the College’s young alumni recognition and engagement efforts.
In October 2017, the Morehouse Board of Trustees voted to name Dr. David A. Thomas as the 12th President of Morehouse College. Thomas took office on January 1, 2018. He holds a doctorate in Organizational Behavior Studies and a Master of Philosophy in Organizational Behavior, both from Yale University. He also has a Master of Organizational Psychology degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Administrative Sciences degree from Yale College. Thomas is the former H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the former Dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Thomas is raising funds to support campus renovations, faculty research, infrastructure improvements, and other needs. His other priorities include expanding academic and leadership opportunities for students, increasing the graduation rate, and growing enrollment.
Under Thomas’ leadership in 2018-19, Morehouse College raised more than $7 million to establish new endowed scholarships, build an outdoor study area and park for students, and support programming at Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. In addition, the College received another $4 million in grants to fund the expansion of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and to launch the comprehensive collegiate writing program, the Black Ink Project, a Quality Enhancement Plan initiative designed to build the critical thinking and writing skills of students across the curriculum.
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