Morehouse College

Morehouse College is a private, four-year, liberal arts college for African-American men located on a 61 acre (247,000 m²) campus in Atlanta, Georgia. The college has an enrollment of 3,000 students. Morehouse is one of 5 remaining all-men's colleges in the United States.

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.

Related Topics:
American Civil War - Augusta, Georgia

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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.

Related Topics:
1879 - 1885 - John D. Rockefeller - 1890 - 1897

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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 a 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.

Related Topics:
John Hope - 1906 - Booker T. Washington - 1913 - 1929

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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. During the 1960s, Morehouse students became involved in the civil rights movement in Atlanta.

Related Topics:
1931 - Colgate University - Benjamin Mays - 1940 - Martin Luther King, Jr. - 1960s - Civil rights movement

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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.

Related Topics:
1967 - 1968 - Phi Beta Kappa - Morehouse School of Medicine - 1975 - 1981

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Dr. Leroy Keith, Jr was named president in 1987. The school's first Rhodes Scholar was named in 1994. In 1995, alumnus Dr. Walter E. Massey, became Morehouse's ninth president.

Related Topics:
1987 - Rhodes Scholar - 1994 - 1995 - Walter E. Massey

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