Morehouse Magazine

SPRING 2013

MOREHOUSE MORE REHOUSE MAGAZINE

President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79

FOUNDER’S DAY 2013 • OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME • PEACE AMBASSADORS TO JAPAN

MOREHOUSE COLLEGE NATIONAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 2012-2014 OFFICERS

MCNAA is an independent 501c3 organization.

Kevin R. McGee ‘93 President kevin.mcgee@morehousecollegealumni.com Emanuel Payton ‘85 Vice President-at-Lange epayton403@msn.com Earl Nero ‘72 Executive Director earl.nero@morehousecollegealumni.com Michael J. Brooken, Jr. ‘94 Treasurer mbrooken@carterdavisgroup.com Carlton Collins ’11 Secretary collins.carlton@gmail.com Thomas N. Scott ’84 Financial Secretary tscot@bellsouth.net James D. Henry ‘61 General Counsel jamesdhenry@msn.com Alvin H. Darden ‘72 College Representative adarden@morehouse.edu Henry M. Goodgame, Jr. ’84 Director, Alumni Relations hgoodgame@morehouse.edu REGION I-IX VICE PRESIDENTS Don McCarthy ‘89 Vice President, Region I dmccarthy@mcsdga.net Vice President, Region II VACANT Melvin D. Caldwell, Jr. ’75 Vice President, Region III 11312 Treebark Drive Pineville, NC 28134 Sheerms@aol.com Mark W. Hill ’67 Vice President, Region IV 103 Persimmon Circle Reisterstown, MD 21136 markhill.pi@gmail.com Charles H. Neal ’64 Vice President, Region V 13957 Stahelin Detroit, MI 48223 charlesneal101@AOL.com

9.7.13

George W. Thompson ’66 Vice President, Region VI 597 Viking Drive East Saint Paul, MN 55117 Jags597@aol.com Corey E. Thomas ‘93 Vice President, Region VII 920 South Commerce Street #309 Little Rock, AR 72202 Cethomas1091@gmail.com Donald E. Long ’64 Vice President, Region VIII 7950 Alida Street LaMesa, CA 91942 dlong@sdccd.edu Michael Bryant Vice President, Region IX bryant1831@gmail.com

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OPPOrTuNiTY OF a LiFeTiMe Plucked from small, obscure African villages and towns, 10 scholars have been given an opportunity of a lifetime: an education at Morehouse. They, as well as their billionaire benefactor, see their education as the tool they will use to carve out a better future for their struggling countries.

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COMMeNCeMeNT 2012 President Emeritus Robert M. Franklin ’75 was keynote speaker for his final Renaissance class. He urged the 500 newly minted Morehouse Men to “spread the spirit of our Renaissance far and wide.”

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PeaCe MiSSiON A group of King Chapel assistants traveled to Japan to take part in the weeklong commemoration of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a journey, said Lawrence E. Carter Sr., dean of King Chapel, to becoming “moral cosmopolitans.”

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a TiMe TO LeaD President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 has taken note of the times: how the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 100th anniversary of the College being named Morehouse and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington are all occurring in 2013—the year he has been called to lead.

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CeLeBraTiNG HiSTOrY, MaKiNG HiSTOrY This year’s Founder’s Day celebration honored our past, embraced our future and threw in a few surprises for good measure.

de p a rtm e nt s 6 15 18 20 22

INSIDE THE HOUSE IN THE NEWS HOMECOMING ON THE SHELF DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Cover photo by Billy Howard

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ON THE FIELD AND COURT BROTHER TO BROTHER ALUMNI NEWS CLASS NOTES THE ROAD TAKEN

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“We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character— that is the goal of true education.”

Martin Luther King Jr. ’48

Morehouse College has always been committed to producing leaders who will change their communities, the nation and the world. Not only do Morehouse students receive a rigorous liberal arts education, but an awakening to their capacity for integrity, compassion, civility and leadership.

Building Forever Capacity Give online at giving.morehouse.edu

president’s message Timing Is Everything

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ince arriving in January, I have reconnected with my alma mater in ways that I had not imagined I would. And timing, particularly 2013, has meant everything. I was fortunate to come back to Morehouse in time to be a part of the 146th Founder’s Day activities, which included the start of a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the naming of the College—when Morehouse became Morehouse. And it was my great honor to top off a grand week with the announcement that President Barack Obama will join us for our Commencement exercises in May!

Certainly, I have made note of areas that need improvement, and many of you have heard me speak to that issue. But more important than the challenges before us is the esprit de corps that is demonstrated by the Morehouse community. I believe that spirit is, in part, what Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays meant when he referred to the “intangible something” that keeps Morehouse from being just another college.

I saw that something in action as our hardworking staff put the finishing touches on Founder’s Day 2013. I witnessed the fruits of their labor during the Founder’s Day Convocation; at the unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service Emancipation Proclamation stamp; and at the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala, which celebrated its silver anniversary.

I experienced that “intangible something” when I served as a panelist in the Morehouse Research Institute’s Founder’s Day Symposium and Town Hall Meeting. And I felt the warmth of the Morehouse crowd as I enjoyed the Founder’s Day Concert, featuring Eric Benét with Spelman alumna Avery*Sunshine as his opening act.

I am awed that so many historic events in the life of the College, as well as the nation itself, are converging at this moment in time. It makes me believe that there is something great—perhaps even divine—about the destiny of our beloved institution.

We must recover all that we celebrated this Founder’s Day—our traditions and storied legacy—and merge them with our aspiration for the future.

The aspiration is, in short, that Morehouse will be Morehouse.

The time is now.

Sincerely,

“I am awed that so many historic events in the life of the College, as well as the nation itself, are converging at this moment in time. It makes me believe that there is something great—perhaps even divine—about the destiny of our

John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79

beloved institution.”

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MOREHOUSE MAGAZINE

Our name means the world to us…

We are proud to mark the 100th anniversary of the naming of Morehouse College in 1913 in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, the corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.

“Morehouse challenges us to have a social conscience. When you think this way, you can’t help but to want to make a positive impact on the world, as well as positively influence others.”

-James Bernard Pratt Jr. ‘13

For more than a century, thousands of our graduates have made strides in industries ranging from ministry to medicine, from arts to athletics, living up to a world-recognized distinction: Morehouse Man. Morehouse College gratefully acknowledges every alumnus and student whose leadership and contribution to local, national and global communities serve to make our good name even better.

editor’s notes Intrinsic Value, Transformational Investment

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n an editorial published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79, then executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, recounted the story of how Booker T. Washington, an exslave, delivered a $350-million speech in New York’s Madison Square Garden Concert Hall on April 14, 1903. He went on to explain that because of Washington’s appeal on behalf of historically black colleges, Andrew Carnegie, who was among a handful of the wealthiest philanthropists in the country at the time, responded by raising Tuskegee Institute’s endowment by $600,000—or the equivalent of nearly $350 million today.

Wilson called this gift a transformational investment, saying: “While African American wealth, if properly cultivated, could help make a meaningful difference for HBCUs, the unmet challenge of fundamentally transforming some of the more investment-worthy colleges requires a multiracial coalition of American philanthropists who recognize the value of those institutions to our shared American future.”

Yet, we know that in the philanthropic community, one of the key indicators of a college’s investment worthiness is the caliber and diversity of its current supporters. In this issue of Morehouse Magazine, we highlight two recent gifts that underscore the value of a Morehouse education, while providing scholarship support for deserving students.

Morehouse is the first HBCU to partner with the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, one of the nation’s most renowned merit scholarship programs. For the next four years, six Stamps Scholars will be chosen in the spring to receive full-tuition and room-and-board scholarships, along with a $10,000 enrichment fund that can be used for study abroad; research, academic, or co-curricular conferences; research or non-profit internships; and computer or research equipment purchases.

Foundation founders Penelope W. Stamps and E. Roe Stamps IV attribute Morehouse’s “commitment to global leadership training and service learning” as mission-driven attributes that make the College a good-fit partner institution. The gift from the Stamps Foundation totals more than $2.1 million.

(See story on page 22.)

This year, 10 South African young men from Burundi and Zimbabwe joined the Morehouse freshman class as Andrew Young International Scholars on fully funded four-year scholarships provided by benefactor Zimbabwean entrepreneur and Morehouse trustee Strive Masiyiwa. Funded through Trustee Masiyiwa’s social investment subsidiary, Capernaum Trust, for the next five years, his commitment of $6.4 million will make it possible for 40 South African students to matriculate at Morehouse. (See story on page 24.)

Trustee Masiyiwa said that he expects to see each of these young men return to Africa as a “much more confident, self-assured, more complete young man who is not struggling to find out who he is in the world.”

As we prepare to welcome President Barack Obama as the 129th Commencement speaker on May 19, Morehouse can proudly pronounce that for nearly 150 years, what Trustee Masiyiwa expects and what the Stamps recognize and support is what continues to make Morehouse Morehouse and indeed worthy of investment.

Toni O’Neal Mosley Executive Editor Note: You can read President John Silvanus Wilson Jr.’s editorial, “Wealthy Americans, Meet Historically Black Colleges, Again,” at http://chronicle.com/article/Wealthy-Americans-Meet/135536/.

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Morehouse Magazine

John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 President Willis B. Sheftall ’64 Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Phillip Howard ’87 Vice President for Institutional Advancement Toni O’Neal Mosley Executive Editor and Director of Public Relations Vickie G. Hampton Editor Add Seymour Jr. Communications Writer

contributors Contributing Writer Christian L. Saint-Vil In the News Elise Durham Class Notes Julie Pinkney Tongue Contributing Photographers Philip McCollum

James Robinson

Add Seymour Jr. Graphic Design Glennon Design Group Administrative Assistant Minnie Jackson Web Manager Kara Walker

Morehouse Magazine is published by Morehouse College, Office of Communications, Division of Institutional Advancement. Opinions expressed in Morehouse Magazine are those of the authors, not necessarily of the College.

Letters and Comments: Letters must be one typed page in length and signed. Please include complete contact information.

Send to: Morehouse Magazine Editor, Morehouse College, Office of Communications, 830 Westview Dr., S.W., Atlanta, GA 30314 E-mail: morehousemageditor@morehouse.edu Fax: 404-215-2729 Change of Address and Class Notes: http://giving.morehouse.edu/NetCommunity Morehouse College is the nation’s largest liberal arts college for men. The College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium of four schools.

Morehouse does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, handicap, or national or ethnic origin in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its educational policies and programs, or in its staff, as specified by federal laws and regulations.

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insidethehouse King Collection Wins Georgia Society of Archivists President’s Award THE OFFICE OF the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection was awarded the 2012 President’s Award by the Georgia Society of Archivists during the Georgia Society of Archivists’ annual meeting on Nov. 8, 2012. The award is presented each year to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the archiving profession.

Vicki Crawford with Marie Force “The Office of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection was nominated based on the efforts of you and your staff to create campus-based programming and community support initiatives that highlight the teachings and philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and support the Collection,” said GSA president Marie Force in a letter to Vicki Crawford, executive director of the Office of the King Collection.

“I am very pleased to recognize your office’s outstanding contributions to Georgia’s documentary heritage and to the archival profession,” Force said. n

PULLING RANK

Morehouse Ranked No. 3 HBCU, One of Nation’s Top Colleges MOREHOUSE COLLEGE is one of the nation’s top historically black colleges and universities, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine in its annual Best Colleges edition. This marks the fourth consecutive year that the College has ranked No. 3 in this ranking.

The magazine also ranked the College among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. Morehouse was listed at No. 62, tied with Spelman College as the highest ranked HBCUs on that list.

Morehouse also has been ranked as one of the nation’s top feeder schools to the Teach for America program. Eleven members of Morehouse’s class of 2012 were part of Teach for America in 2012, putting the College among the top 20 small colleges and universities.

Since 1997, nearly 100 Morehouse graduates have taught as corps members.

Teach for America recruits and develops college graduates to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end educational inequity. Last fall, more than 10,000 corps members taught in 46 urban and rural regions across the nation. n

A New Step for Breast Cancer Awareness THE 13TH MOREHOUSE College Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, held on Oct. 13, 2012, started with a fiesty dance before hundreds of participants stepped out on the annual walk against breast cancer.

The College presented a check to the American Cancer Society for $9,861.55. This includes a $100 donation submitted directly to the American Cancer Society on behalf of the College.

Since the walk—which was co-founded by Sandra Walker, manager of trustee affairs (pictured at base of King statue)—began 13 years ago, the College has now donated a total of $199,067.41 to the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.” n

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insidethehouse Former President and First Lady Become Buildings’ Namesakes

President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58

President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58 and former First Lady Shirley A. Massey returned to the College during Homecoming 2012 for an honor that has been bestowed on only a dozen or so people in the College’s history: to have campus buildings named for them.

The Leadership Center building is now the Walter E. Massey Leadership Center, and the Executive Conference Center is now the Shirley A. Massey Executive Conference Center.

The renaming ceremony came on a perfect day—not simply because of the crisp, fall weather or the nearly hundred attendees (among them former staffers and students) who witnessed the historic name unveilings, but also because it was the Masseys’ 43rd wedding anniversary.

“It is especially gratifying that the ceremony takes place on our 43rd wedding anniversary. What could be better? Our profound thanks to the board of trustees and President Franklin,” said Walter Massey.

He is currently the president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During his tenure as Morehouse president (1995 to 2007), the College created and launched a minor in leadership studies and later constructed the 70,000-square-foot facility that houses the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership, the Emma and Joe Adams Public Service Institute, and the Division of Business Administration and Economics. The building, which was one of the cornerstones of capital improvements made to the College under Massey’s administration, opened in August 2005.

Shirley Massey played a large role as host to numerous national and international guests and dignitaries who visited the campus. She also spearheaded efforts to improve the campus landscape.

Her building namesake, the Shirley A. Massey Executive Conference Center, includes a pre-function area and lobby that can accommodate up to 500 guests. The Bank of America Auditorium seats 300 and is equipped with state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment. Meeting room areas can be partitioned for any combination of up to six breakout rooms, each accommodating up to 50 people. n

Dr. Massey and Shirley A. Massey (third from right) with family

Massey Donates Presidential Papers to Morehouse College Just hours before the unveiling of the building that would bear his name, President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58, the College’s ninth president, donated his presidential papers to Morehouse during a ceremony on Oct. 26 in the library of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

The papers, which include correspondence, speeches and policy documents from Massey’s tenure from 1995 to 2007, will be housed in the College archives and the Robert W. Woodruff Atlanta University Center Library. n

Signing the official documents are (from left to right) Robert C. Davidson ’67, chairman of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees; Massey; and President Emeritus Robert M. Franklin ’75. Chapel executive director Roy Craft (standing left) and Chapel Dean Lawrence E. Carter Sr. are assisting. s p r i n g

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insidethehouse Forensics Resurgence Continues as Morehouse Debaters Earn Three National Championships This Season

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

Kenneth Newby ’97 (center), director and coach of the Morehouse College Forensics Program, with the team.

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he Morehouse College forensics team continues its climb into the nation’s upper tier of collegiate debating after bringing home three national titles during 2012-13. Those results follow a successful 2011-12 season in which they finished 16th nationally.

This comes from a program that is in the midst of resurgence after debating at Morehouse waned in recent years.

“This year’s team versus last year’s team has grown considerably,” said Kenneth Newby ’97, director of the Morehouse College Forensics Program and the team’s coach. “We have largely the same students when it comes

to varsity, but they’ve grown. They aren’t the same debaters. They are better.”

Newby’s debaters won two championships at the Pi Kappa Delta Nationals and another at the Novice Nationals, where they finished in first place overall.

The team also finished first overall in the Georgia Parliamentary Debate Association State Finals for the third consecutive year and won first place overall in the Southeast Regional Debating Championship, which was hosted by Morehouse in February 2013.

Newby, a debate team member when he was a student, was presented the

Brightest Star Award at the Pi Kappa Delta Nationals in recognition of his contributions to the art of persuasion.

Two Morehouse debaters, seniors Chris Fortson-Gaines and Byron Granberry, were nominated as All-Americans this year.

The team also was the only squad from a historically black college or university to compete in the World Universities Debating Championships in Berlin, Germany, in December. Out of 400 teams from 82 countries, the debate team finished in the top half of the field, just missing the final rounds.

The team has a few matches left over the next month, including an exhibition against Yale University.

Team members are seniors Chris FortsonGaines, Nicholas Bacon, Austin Williams, Byron Granberry, Kevin Porter, Jameel Odom, Franklin Kwame Weldon, Anthony Voss; junior Malcolm McCullough; sophomores Emmanuel Waddell, Curtis O’Neal and Raheem Cooper-Thomas; and freshmen Rami Blair, Rodje Malcolm, Ralph Jean and Dorian Kandi. The team’s volunteer assistant coach is Derrick Reed ’12.

“They’ve gotten better through a lot of hard work and discipline and practice and I’m really proud of their accomplishments,” Newby said. n

Obama Again Energized Young People and Voters of Color, Says Election Panel Panelists for “And the Winner Is...

Analyzing the 2012 Election” include (left to right) Grant Rehee, Corey Dade, Cynthia Tucker, Bryan Monroe, Angela Robinson and Hasan Crockett. The event was sponsored by the journalism programs of Morehouse and Syracuse University.

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To watch “and the Winner is…analyzing the 2012 election,” go to http://www.morehouse.edu/academics/journalism/post-election.html.

insidethehouse

KING Commemorated

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he College’s two-week celebration to commemorate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. ’48 featured an eclectic array of academic, religious, community-service and entertainment activities.

Celebrity readers—among them King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, author Pearl Cleage and President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58—presented King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was followed by a panel discussion, “The Dream: Then and Now.” And Atlanta University Center students produced “Going to See the King: A Theatrical Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.” Academic activities included the Martin Luther King Jr. Crown Forum with speaker Orville Vernon Burton, professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a literary salon that featured Glen Eskew, professor of history at Georgia State University, who discussed his book, But for Birmingham; and a lecture by Lewis V. Baldwin, professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University.

Dozens of students volunteered their services for the annual Bonner Office of Community Service’s day of service. Some delivered meals or packed food boxes for local food banks, while others cleared debris or prepared spring gardens at several parks and gardens. n

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peopleatthehouse First Female Dean Wants to Make an Impact on Future

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larissa Myrick-Harris accepted the position of dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Morehouse at the beginning of the academic year— and she’s already making history. She is the College’s first female dean.

History aside, it is the division’s future that is her top priority.

“Through thoughtful faculty and student engagement, learning experiences that embody ‘high-impact’ and experiential educational practices—such as learning communities, collaborative research, civic engagement through service learning, writing intensive courses, faculty and undergraduate research, global learning and community-based learning—the division will create a culture of free-flowing and constant productive communication, collegiality and collaboration to achieve our end of transforming 21st-century learners into 21st-century leaders,” said Myrick-Harris.

Myrick-Harris said she welcomes creative ideas to address the challenges the division faces.

“I have been doing a lot of listening during these past few weeks,” said MyrickHarris. “I think it’s important for me not to come in with preconceived notions.

However, I am coming in with a vision.”

Her vision for the division is based on the Sankofa Imperative, which stresses “learning from the lessons and best traditions of the past to create the ideal future.”

Specifically, her goals are to furbish grants that will aid the recruitment and retention of a young faculty; meet the needs of the faculty with funding to travel for research and presentations at conferences; and reduce faculty workload by using student assistants and having seasoned professors mentor younger faculty.

Before joining Morehouse, MyrickHarris was interim executive direc-

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Clarissa Myrick-Harris

tor of the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building. She joined UNCF as the director of the Institute for Capacity Building’s Curriculum and Faculty Enhancement Program in October 2007, overseeing the UNCF-Ford Faculty Enhancement Initiative, which provides funding and technical assistance to UNCF-member institutions to establish or enhance faculty development centers.

She also established and managed the UNCF Digital Media and Learning Initiative, which is supported by the MacArthur Foundation and focuses on spurring research and innovation in technology among faculty and students at HBCUs and other special-mission institutions. Myrick-Harris also managed the UNCF Math and Science Teacher Education Initiative pilot program at

Virginia Union University.

An educator for nearly 30 years, Myrick-Harris has held a variety of faculty and administrative positions at both HBCUs and majority institutions. She served on the faculties of the University of Georgia and the University of Cincinnati. In addition, she taught at Emory University, Purdue University and Clark Atlanta University. She was a Distinguished Teaching and Research Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and served as the chair of the African World Studies, History and World Languages Department at Morris Brown College.

Myrick-Harris was the founding director of the Morris Brown College/University of Minnesota Mellon Pipeline Program in International Studies in the early 2000s, and then became national director of the Global Issues Honors Consortium, a partnership between the University of Minnesota, Dillard University and Tougaloo College. She also co-founded the African American Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio, the first African-centered independent school chartered by the Ohio Department of Education.

Myrick-Harris earned her doctorate from Emory University, her master’s from The Ohio State University and her bachelor’s from Morris Brown College.

Her research and writing focus on the history of leadership and institution building in African American communities, especially during the civil rights and black power eras. She also has coauthored several African American history digital textbooks. n Christian L. Saint-Vil, editor-in-chief of The Maroon Tiger, reported for this article.

peopleatthehouse “You’re not a Morehouse Man unless you embrace Morehouse values. As men of Morehouse, be our leaders. Look like our leaders.

Show us what you aspire to be in 20 years. You want to be a college president?

Start dressing like one.

Basically, visualize what you want to be.”

—Julianne malveaux Speaker, author and former president of Bennett College, Humanities Initiative Crown Forum speech on Nov. 1, 2012

’HOUSE GueSTS Men of Morehouse were repeatedly given the message—by everyone from executives and activists to well-known entertainers— that with greater opportunities come greater responsibility to lead.

“If you live your life with ... awareness, you can launch into the adventure of life with the assurance that no person, no tragedy, no defeat, no systematic violation has the power to diminish who you are.”

— The rev. luther E. smith Jr. Professor of church and community at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Howard Thurman Day Crown Forum on Nov. 15, 2012 Go to https://www.morehouse.edu/crownforum/index.html to watch both of the Crown Forum speeches.

“You have to get out there and do as many things as you can, not only for the experience, but for the exposure. I tell people all the time that when preparation meets opportunity, that’s when it happens. You can plan, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”

—Jennifer Holiday Award-winning singer and actress, lecturing on the business side of the music industry, Feb. 5, 2013

“Hopefully, you have not chosen a major based on how much money you think you can make. That’s a recipe for disaster. While you are here, you should be trying to find out what it is you love. That’s the whole thing about a liberal arts college—you can get exposed to everything here.”

—shelton “spike” lee ’79 Filmmaker, a Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies Program event in September 2012 s p r i n g

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peopleatthehouse

John Handy Named Vulcan Materials’ Morehouse Faculty Member of the Year for 2012-13

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conomics professor John Handy keeps saying he is ready to retire, but each day he realizes one thing.

“I just can’t do it,” he said with a laugh.

“I just can’t leave the classroom. I’ve been teaching for more than 40 years. I just love teaching.”

That dedication is just one of the reasons Handy was given the Vulcan Materials Company Teaching Excellence Award as the Morehouse Faculty Member of the Year for 2012-13.

Handy is the ninth person to win the John W. Handy award.

“In recognition of outstanding contributions to undergraduate education, student learning and campus life, the Vulcan Materials Company and the Georgia Independent Colleges Association are pleased to present their teaching excellence award to…one who is a scholar, author, proposal writer and program director, community volunteer, who has been leading on many fronts and teacher of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds who sing his praises the world over,” said Anne Watts, associate vice president for Academic Affairs.

A Bronx, N.Y., native, Handy has been at Morehouse for 25 years, starting in 1978 when he directed the Manpower Human Resources Program. He also started a college preparatory program for high school juniors and seniors.

He left Morehouse to work at Clark Atlanta University, where

he and then-president Thomas Cole started one of Atlanta’s first community development corporations, the University Development Corporation. That group spearheaded residential and community development in the Atlanta University Center area.

Handy came back to Morehouse in 1992 to become chair of the economics department, a post he held until 2007. He hired his successor—his former student, Gregory Price.

Handy has continued to be active nationally and locally in community development activities.

“The reason I got into economics in the first place was because I was interested in community economic development,” he said. “I was always interested in housing development and housing opportunity.”

Though he isn’t a Morehouse graduate, Handy’s family has deep ties to the Atlanta University Center. His mother grew up in a house that still stands behind Davidson House. His uncle was former president Hugh Gloster’s classmate. And the women in his family all went to Spelman.

But what keeps Handy at Morehouse are the students, especially those who come back after establishing successful careers to say thank you.

“There’s nothing better,” Handy said. “That makes me feel like I’ve done something or accomplished something. There’s no other field where you can get that. It’s like hitting a home run.” n

–AS

Cason Hill ’53 Given CLA Lifetime Achievement Award CASON Hill ’53 has become an institution at Morehouse, where he has taught English—and done a number of other jobs at the same time —for 50 years. He was one of 53 faculty members who were honored in 2012 for at least 20 years of distinguished teaching service to Morehouse.

When Hill joined Morehouse nearly a half-century ago, President Benjamin E. Mays asked him to be the one-man Communications Office for the College. He edited and wrote stories about Morehouse and pitched them to local and national media.

By 1979, President Hugh Gloster ’31, Mays’ successor, urged Hill to become editor of the CLA Journal.

“Editing is just something I have a knack for,” he said. “It’s just something I’ve always done.” n MOREHOUSE MAGAZINE

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peopleatthehouse

Campus Visits

Several times each year, the Morehouse College Office of Institutional Advancement invites senior-level executives from the world of business to participate in the Leadership Lecture Series to share their experiences and expertise with a select group of business students and other members of the campus community. The session includes a short presentation by the visiting professional and an opportunity for informal interaction between them and the students.

Doug Braunstein, CFO, JPMorgan Chase, Nov. 6, 2012

Kevin Brown, chief procurement officer, DELL, Sept. 19, 2012

Joseph Jimenez, CEO, Novartis, April 11, 2012

Perry Fair, chief creative officer, JWT Advertising, Sept. 6, 2012 Mark Furlong, CEO, M&I Bank (BMO Harris Capital), Oct. 11, 2012

Mike Triplett, president, Regional Segment, CIGNA, Oct. 9, 2012

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Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO, General Electric, Sept. 18, 2012

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peopleatthehouse Roger Williams Delivered Wit and Knowledge to Students and Colleagues

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ssociate professor Roger Williams was a stellar economics teacher with a deep knowledge of monetary theory and policy. But Williams, who passed away on Nov. 7, 2012, will be just as remembered for his legendary sense of humor.

“He’d always find something funny, interesting and ironic about what was going on,” said economics professor John Handy, who befriended Williams more than 40 years ago, dating back to their first jobs in their native New York City. As head of the economics department, Handy recruited Williams to Morehouse. “[We’re] losing someone who was a mentor, someone who students enjoyed being around and someone who would hold their

feet to the fire.”

Williams taught at Morehouse for 14 years and was an expert in the Federal Reserve System, macroeconomics and financial economics. He pushed students hard, but always with a smile and humor. Many of those same students returned to campus after graduation to thank him for making their work so hard.

Handy said that respect came from Williams’ being firm, but not mean.

“He was a tough grader and they knew

PASSAGES that about him,” Handy said. “But they were very fond of him because Roger was always gregarious and always positive.”

So were his Division of Business Administration and Economics colleagues.

They all have stories about Williams laughing and talking about everything from jazz to sports.

“Once he hit the door in the morning, he was talking to somebody,” Handy said.

“Roger had a curiosity about every single thing in the world.

“We lost a great teacher and someone who was authentically interested in academic excellence and wanted African American students to excel. He was one of a kind.” n –AS

Chung Brought King Chapel’s Blank Walls to Life

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he incredible journey that brought dozens of highly acclaimed art pieces to Morehouse began at an unlikely location: Atlanta’s Lenox Square Mall.

In 1982, while window shopping—which included the typical flashy fads and trends of mall culture—the newly appointed dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Lawrence E. Carter, came face to face with beautiful, authentic art.

“At the back of the mall, I came across some of the most magnificent, gorgeous portraits I had ever seen,” Carter recalled.

The artist was Hoeun Chung, a Korean who had come to the states less than a decade earlier, but who was already making a name for himself. He greeted his curious visitor with warmth and youthfulness, said Carter.

Carter, in turn, introduced himself to Chung as the dean of the most prominent religious edifice in King’s honor. He went on to explain that the Chapel had lots of wall space, but no stained glass windows or, for that matter, a portrait of King.

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“I explained that I wanted something large and different from what anyone had ever seen.”

And Chung delivered. The portrait depicted King in a Boston University graduation robe—something never before painted. The massive portrait included the faces of prominent civil and human rights activists, including King’s mentor and former Morehouse president Benjamin E. Mays; Booker T. Washington; and individuals who had worked alongside King during the civil rights movement.

“I was literally blown away,” Carter recalled. Then Carter asked the hard question: “How much?”

Chung answered: “You can’t afford it.”

When Carter heard the fee—$25,000—he concurred.

“However,” Chung continued, “I’m going to give it to you on permanent loan.”

“That was Chung’s gift to Morehouse College,” Carter said recently, explaining the legacy Chung, who died in August 2012, has left at Morehouse.

Over the next three decades, Chung almost single-handedly turned the blank walls of King Chapel’s corridors and vestibule into the breathtaking International Hall of Honor, one of the nation’s largest collections of oil portraits of the world’s most revered prophetic social engineers, nonviolence practitioners, peace advocates and civil and human rights leaders.

Of the Hall’s 191 portraits, Chung painted 174. The subjects run the gamut from international peacemakers such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to alumni change agents such as Maynard Jackson ’56 and Otis Moss Jr. ’56. n – —–VGH

insidethehouse Morehouse in the

News n May 16, 2012, The St. Louis

American Box Tops for Education Town Hall: Celebrities and Communities Advocate for Education Walking into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, you could feel the

energy and excitement in the air as more than 1,000 guests gathered for the Box Tops for Education Town Hall event. The mission was to engage in the critical conversation around the importance of solid primary education for our nation’s children. Morehouse dad Steve Harvey and National Cares Mentoring founder Susan L. Taylor hosted the event. Other celebrities in attendance were actress Tisha Campbell-Martin, Grammy Award-winning artist Chilli from the group TLC and Grammy Award-

winning singer-songwriter Monica. n June 19, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MPS partnership cements scholarships to Morehouse College A new partnership between Milwaukee Public Schools and Morehouse has attracted enough local business dollars to support near full-ride academic scholarships for 10 Milwaukee-area graduates. MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton announced the partnership with a special signing ceremony for the 10 scholars.

The commitment, to the tune of $800,000, has been provided by local businesses to help pay for the students to attend Morehouse for four years. n November 16, 2012,

Time.com When Colleges Woo Students Through Social Media: Less Viewbooks, More Facebook With few conventions in place, each college approaches online recruiting a little differently. Some ideas are practical, such as Morehouse College’s

n May 6, 2012, New Haven Register

Yale, Morehouse Participate in NAACP Great Debate The Morehouse College Debate Team had its own version of a “Great Debate” in April 2013. The awardwinning debaters went up against Yale University in front

of a packed house for the New Haven NAACP Great Debate. The hot topic was the controversial stand-yourground laws.

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insidethehouse n August 26, 2012, The State, South Carolina

i used to race for Me

Track star and Morehouse alumnus Jerome Singleton Jr. ‘11 was profiled in several media outlets after making the U.S. 2012 Paralympic team. Singleton, who was born without a fibula in his right leg, has not slowed down since his first amputation at 18 months old.

As a second-time Paralympian, he said his mission is to help get other amputees moving, too. “ I realize that I have the opportunity to change people’s perspective on life and I’m really thankful for that.”

The world champion sprinter, who has dual degrees in math, applied physics and engineering, competed in the sprint races at the Paralympic Games in London. Singleton’s story also was featured on TheGrio.com and The Washington Post.

“Morehouse Mondays,” where prospective students can use Facebook’s groupchat feature to talk with everyone from financial aid officials to the school’s president in real time. Morehouse Mondays took place every Monday in April leading up to the crucial admissions deadline. n December 14, 2012, CNBC.com wHy a BETTEr JoBlEss raTE HurTs JoBlEss and Economy

Morehouse Welcomes African Scholars n August 17, 2012, CNN Newsroom

zimbabwean Students Come to u.S. CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux interviewed two of the 10 new students from Zimbabwe who entered Morehouse as freshmen this year. Their opportunity for a full four-year scholarship to Morehouse came through the Higher Life Foundation, started

by African telecommunications mogul and new Morehouse board member Strive Masiyiwa. In all, Masiyiwa has committed to educating 40 men over the next four years at Morehouse. Other outlets that covered this story include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Forbes.com. n October 23, 2012, U.S. News and World Report

SaT, aCT Test Prep Tips for international Students Even if you know English, make sure you’re familiar with American English, recommends Prince Abudu, a student from Zimbabwe who’s studying at Morehouse College.

For Abudu, who studied British English growing up, reading essays online helped him to understand the nuances of American English as he prepared for the reading and writing sections of the SAT.

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insidethehouse Economics professor Greg Price was quoted on CNBC.com about the economy around the fiscal cliff debate.

With the average benefit check at $300 a week—and benefits lasting up to 99 weeks—the fact that so many people are no longer getting them hurts the overall economy, say analysts. “The best evidence is that unemployment benefits affect the economy,” said Gregory Price, professor of economics at Morehouse College. “For each dollar spent on benefits, they

n January 3, 2013, Atlanta

College, offers expert insight.

She believes many people have a “happiness set point,” meaning they maintain a pretty constant level of contentment regardless of the circumstances.

Journal-Constitution Metro Atlantans have many complaints, but love their quality of life In this article highlighting the quality of life of the residents of metro Atlanta, Anne Borden, an assistant sociology professor at Morehouse

n January 20, 2013, Associated Press Obama’s Inauguration Day Is a Day for MLK Jr., Too In this article looking at the significance of Inauguration Day falling on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Dr. Vicki

carry more than another dollar in spending. If you cut those things back, it can hurt economic growth.”

Crawford, director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, says the inauguration falling in a year of civil rights milestones is a prime opportunity for the nation to re-examine its past and look ahead to the future. This story was covered by approximately 100 separate media publications, including U.S. News & World Report, ABC News, NPR and FOX5 Atlanta.

Local and National Coverage on College’s New President n January 22, 2013, NPR

Are HBCUs Still Needed?

New Morehouse President Shares Views

n November 12, 2012, Atlanta

Journal-Constitution

From the White House to Morehouse; HBCU Selects Wilson as New Leader John Silvanus Wilson Jr., a 1979 graduate of Morehouse College, was named the 11th president of the nation’s only historically black college for men. The story was also covered locally in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, WTVM 9, CBS Atlanta, WXIA 11, Cascade Patch and Atlanta Daily World.

Michelle Martin of NPR’s “Tell Me More” sat down with John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79, the new president of Morehouse College, to discuss the state of HBCUs and Morehouse in particular. Wilson said that there is still a need for HBCUs, but changes must be made. He said, “The value proposition and the financial model—particularly for a liberal arts institution—they are under a lot of stress. And it’s unsustainable.” This story was also covered in TheLoop21 and Creative Loafing.

n January 31, 2013, The Grio.com

Dr. John S. Wilson Jr., New Morehouse President, to Focus on ‘Character’ and ‘Capital’ Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr. officially started his new role as president of Morehouse College on January 28, 2013. He discussed his short-term goals to stabilize the campus and strengthen the infrastructure with TheGrio.com, as well as the opportunity to pursue many of the key concepts and strategies he worked on at the White House. He also wants to focus on “character preeminence,” which he says is “not just educating smart people, but educating and graduating good people, as well.”

To read more articles on President Wilson, go to: www.morehouse.edu/about/presidentwilson/inthenews.html

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2012

OMING The Return More than 20,000 alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends who returned to the ‘House for Homecoming 2012 were able to enjoy a host of activities, from the Opening Convocation to the Coronation Ball, and from the big cat fight (Tigers vs. Fort Valley State Wildcats) on the gridiron to the closing Sunday Service.

Crowned Miss Maroon and White was Jasmine Matthews, with her court, First Attendant Taylor Hawkins and Second Attendant Cydnee Williams. n s p r i n g

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ontheshelf The Blue Print: The Keys to Making BIG Money in Professional Sales BY reGGie MaraBLe ‘95 PuBLiSHeD BY FrieSeN PreSS, 2012

REGGIE MARABLE BELIEVES he has the answer for those trying to figure out how they can become successful in sales careers.

In his book, The Blue Print: The Keys to Making BiG Money in Professional Sales, Marable, a 1995 Morehouse graduate, lays out a series of fundamental ideas that he says made him one of the top salespeople at the Sprint Corporation.

He outlines eight ways to success, including creating a value statement, having strong time management skills, understanding the power of the written ‘Thank You’ card, and reading on a regular basis. He also stresses the importance of a good contract plan, how best to secure appointments, and successful telemarketing techniques. Mentorship, managing your personal brand, using social media and leveraging visibilities are other factors he details.

“With hard work and a game plan, I ascended to an executive-level position responsible for a fourstate geography, 80-plus sales professionals and over $300,000,000 in revenue in less than 13 years from that call center,” Marable said in the book’s prologue. “My Blue Print can be duplicated in your career to accomplish similar results.”

“The Blue Print has given me and many other winning sales professionals the formula to make big money, climb the corporate ladder and dominate professional sales,” he said. “The Blue Print is simple; however, it takes focus, organization, hard work and the willingness to improve on a daily basis. If you embrace and execute these simple concepts, you will reap financial and professional success beyond your dreams.”

Critical Essays on Barack Obama: Re-affirming the Hope, Re-vitalizing the Dream

BY MeLViN B. raHMiNG WiTH MiCHaeL JaNiS, aLiSON LiGON, LeaH CreQue, aLBerT TurNer, CiNDY LauTeNBaCHer, Tara MiLLer PuBLiSHeD BY CaMBriDGe SCHOLarS PuBLiSHiNG, 2012 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S successful White House run in 2008 spawned a number of books and articles about what his ascendancy to the nation’s highest office has meant to the world.

By offering diverse thoughts on Obama’s life and career, a group of Morehouse English Department faculty members separates their book from others through scholarly discourse and examination.

“The book is not intended to be a paean to Obama,” said professor Melvin Rahming, who was the book’s editor. “It is not a monolithic attempt to align his life and his vision with any specific political, ideological or aesthetic presupposition or agenda—unless, of course, one considers as an agendized matrix my attempt to argue that the collective achievement of these essays is ultimately spiritual in nature. Nor is the book intended as an emotional waterfall or escarpment. Its goal is merely to document some of the scholarly responses to issues and concerns fecundated by Obama’s life and career.”

Albert Turner expounds on the role of Obama’s “prosthetic” memory in cohering seemingly disparate elements of his consciousness. Creque probes Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech and his two books, Dreams of My Father, and The audacity of Hope, for their revelatory nature and visionary reach.

Michael Janis conducts a “speculative investigation into the possibilities an internationalist, even pan-Africanist, ethos would bring to the White House, while assistant professor Tara Miller takes on the post-election state of racial affairs that Rahming calls a “hard-edged indictment against American upholders of white privilege.”

Assistant professor Alison Ligon looks at the “Collision of Fashion and Politics on HBCU Campuses in the Wake of the 2008 Election.” Associate professor Cindy Lutenbacher gives the results of a study where she asked 64 of her present and former Morehouse students a simple question: “What does Barack Obama mean?”

“In this collection of essays, then, we can expect multiple, sometimes conflicting, readings of Obama’s life and writings,” Rahming said. “As one deliberates these articles, one will see that the honorific nature of many of the deliberations notwithstanding, the essays are characterized by discursive intent and grounded in scholarship.”

editor’s Note: This column is open to Morehouse alumni, faculty and staff who have recently published books.

Please contact Add Seymour Jr. at aseymour@morehouse.edu to submit your work.

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ontheshelf The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs

BY KeViN D. JOHNSON ’01 PuBLiSHeD BY JOHNSON MeDia iNC., 2013 BECOMING THE NEXT, great entrepreneurial story—like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg, Kevin Plank of Under Armour or Sara Blakely of Spanx—is achievable for anyone. But for that to happen, Kevin D. Johnson ’01 wants you to change the way you think.

“To be an entrepreneur is to think differently,” says Johnson in his book The entrepreneur Mind: 100 essential Beliefs, Characteristics and Habits of elite entrepreneurs. “While most people seek refuge, entrepreneurs take risks. They don’t want a job; they want to create jobs. Their goal isn’t to think outside the box as much as it is to own the box. Entrepreneurs don’t follow the market; they define the market. This bold and seemingly backward way of thinking I refer to as The Entrepreneur Mind.”

Johnson uses seven areas—strategy, education, people, finance, marketing and sales, leadership, and motivation—as a

straightforward guide to building a successful business. He believes budding entrepreneurs should think big and confidently, create new markets, get over the fear of taking risks and stop wasting time.

Those are the things Johnson did to start his multimillion-dollar company, focusing on building a content management system, while still a sophomore at Morehouse.

“By telling my personal stories and relating those of other successful entrepreneurs, I set out to write a book that focuses on one hundred core lessons that teach entrepreneurs what they may not find in a textbook, magazine, or online. These lessons range from how to think big to why you should use multiple banks, and even include whom you should choose as a spouse.

“Furthermore, my goal in writing this book is to help young entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes I made. Mistakes

during the early days of a business can be devastating. A bad decision such as spending too much money or choosing a bad business partner can lead to an entrepreneur having to shut down operations completely. After making some of my biggest mistakes, I would often think, I wish there were a book out there that would have warned me about this. Now that book exists, and I can help people who may have that same wish.”

Educating Ethical Leaders for the Twenty-First Century eDiTeD BY WaLTer earL FLuKer PuBLiSHeD BY CaSCaDe BOOKS, 2013 TOMORROW’S LEADERS face the challenges of today’s quickly evolving world. But Walter E. Fluker, the former executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, along with three Morehouse faculty members, President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58 and a number of other experts give their impressions on how they can take on those challenges in their book, educating ethical Leaders for the Twenty-First Century (Cascade Books, 2013).

The book is a collection of essays, edited by Fluker, based on the writers’ participation in the Coca-Cola Leadership Lecture Series.

Faculty members Bryant Marks ’94, Melvinia King and Preston King, along with alumni Massey and David Satcher ’63, talk show host Tavis Smiley, the late Harvard professor Derek Bell, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson and Duke professor James A. Joseph all write essays on ethical leadership. Each takes a different point of view on what 21st-century leadership should look like. For example, Joseph stresses the need for a new generation of moral habits. Satcher focuses on eliminating disparities in health care. And Preston King questions the decline of friendship in modernity.

“Together, these essays advance our understanding of the challenge and promise of ethical leadership education, as we continue with the important work ahead,” Fluker wrote. s p r i n g

FOOTNOTe Walter McCartney Burns ’66 has written about the connection of religion with sexual addiction in The use of the Concept of New identity in Christ in Counseling Sexual addiction in Young Men (Creative Book Publishing, 2012).

Burns, a long-time minister, uses various biblical passages to give his ideas on the issue.

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Morehouse Becomes First HBCU Partner of the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation • Gift valued at $2.1 million • Scholars representing each academic division will receive full-tuition and room-andboard scholarships, plus $10,000 enrichment fund • First six scholars selected spring 2013

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

M

orehouse College has become the nation’s first historically black college or university to partner with the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, one of the nation’s most renowned merit scholarship programs. Only 300 students at 34 colleges and universities—including William and Mary, California-Berkeley, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech—are in the program, which has produced two Rhodes Scholars since 2004.

“This will be the most prestigious scholarship that the College will offer,” said Phillip Howard ’87, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

Penelope and E. Roe Stamps IV started the foundation in 1998 to help hard-working and talented students, according to their website. While the merit scholarships fund the full cost of an education, the Stamps also wanted to enhance a student’s education outside of the classroom.

“I spent much time in Atlanta as an undergraduate and graduate student at Georgia Tech and am very familiar with Morehouse and its reputation for producing students who mirror the values associated with our scholarship,” said Roe Stamps. “Morehouse’s commitment to MOREHOUSE MAGAZINE

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(L-R) Randy McDow, executive director of the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, Penelope Stamps, President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79, Roe Stamps and Phillip Howard ’87, vice president for Institutional Advancement

global leadership and service learning is admirable and my wife, Penny, and I are happy to support students who are striving to be leaders in those areas through the Stamps Leadership Scholars Program at Morehouse College.”

Six Stamps scholars will be chosen from each incoming freshman class and receive full-tuition and roomand-board scholarships, along with a $10,000 enrichment fund to use for things such as study abroad opportunities, research trips or computer purchases, or to be able to afford to take an unpaid internship.

“It’s the equivalent of a $200,000 award for a student over a four-year period,” said Howard, who valued the overall gift from Stamps at $2.1 million.

To qualify, students must have a minimum 3.7 grade point average and a high score on the SAT test. They also must be well-rounded and active outside of the classroom and in the community.

Two students from each of the

College’s divisions will be chosen each year, beginning with the fall 2013 freshman class. In spring 2013, the Office of Admissions and the division deans chose a number of students to meet with Stamps, who will then choose Morehouse’s first Stamps scholars.

Randy McDow, executive director of the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, has heard about Morehouse’s leadership development for several years through his association with Keith Hollingsworth, chairman of Morehouse’s Department of Business Administration.

“To have this kind of scholarship that will help the College to go after the nation’s top high school seniors and to give them the kind of opportunities they are getting to go to other places, it’s just wonderful,” said Hollingsworth, who will be a mentor for the scholars. “What it does for students is amazing. Being a part of the Stamps group means a lot for our students and our school.” n

developmentnews

$500,000 Given by film producer David Geffen, founder of DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and Jerry Katzenberg. The David Geffen Keyboard Digital Music Laboratory in the Music Academic Building is his namesake.

2005

$500,000 Given by Emma and Joe Adams, longtime business manager and friend of Charles.

The Center’s concert hall is named in their honor.

2007

The Music Academic Building provides instructional, rehearsal and performance space, as well as 12 faculty studios, two electronic classrooms, nine practice rooms, dedicated storage areas for students’ instruments, a library for sheet music and three academic labs—one of which is the David Geffen Keyboard Digital Music Laboratory.

There are two rehearsal rooms (one each specifically designed for the Morehouse College “House of Funk” Marching Band and the Morehouse College Glee Club), which also accommodate small performances.

“Prior to his death in 2004, Ray clearly expressed his wishes to have a theater named in honor of his mother,” said Ervin. “And while that dream did not come to fruition during his lifetime, it is my distinct honor and privilege to see that wish carried out tonight.” n

$2 million After an impromptu jazz session with the Morehouse Jazz Ensemble, Ray Charles partnered with Morehouse to find, educate and inspire the next generation of music geniuses.

2003

T

he Ray Charles Foundation presented Morehouse a $3-million check during the annual “A Candle in the Dark” Gala in February 2013. The donation honors the legendary musician’s mother, Aretha Robinson, whose name will now be affixed to the College’s Music Academic Building. The building is connected to the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, which was built after previous gifts from Charles.

“Ray Charles cherished his mother,” said Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation. “I know that Ray Charles had a long-standing relationship with Morehouse based on professionalism, integrity and honesty, and that those qualities were very important to him, personally and professionally. He genuinely valued the education and preparation that Morehouse provides to young men.”

G i fts to RA Y P A C

2001

The Ray Charles Foundation Donates $3 Million to Name Music Academic Building in Honor of Charles’ Mother

$1 million Given by Eugene Mitchell; the Center’s Performance Lawn is named in his honor. $3 million

2013

Presented by Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation, this latest gift will secure the naming of the academic wing of the Center after Charles’ mother, Aretha Robinson.

Valerie Ervin (center), president of The Ray Charles Foundation, presents $3-million check to President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 (left) and Board Chairman Robert Davidson ’67. s p r i n g

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Opportunity of a Lifetime

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

Ten Andrew Young International Scholars Are Zimbabwean Billionaire’s Investment in Africa’s Future

F

or months, Prince Abudu and his nine fellow Andrew Young International Scholars waited and wondered about the day they’d step off a plane in big-city Atlanta, fresh from the small, quiet African villages they call home.

“I had no idea what I would see,” Abudu said. “But the fact that I would be coming to America, I knew it would all be different. We all knew from the media that America is the dreamland.”

The 10 young men are now getting a chance to live out their dreams on the campus of Morehouse College. They make up the Andrew Young International Scholars’ inaugural class in an inspirational scholarship program that originates with one of Africa’s richest men, Strive Masiyiwa.

Masiyiwa, the founder and chairman of Econet Wireless, visited Atlanta years before he became a multi-millionaire telecommunications pioneer. He fell in love with Atlanta’s civil rights legacy. It mirrored much of what South Africans suffered through during the difficult apartheid era. He was particularly touched by the legacies of American civil rights giants Martin Luther King Jr. ’48 and Ambassador Andrew Young.

“For us, the civil rights movement and our fight against colonialism were almost synonymous,” Masiyiwa said. “We knew people like Ambassador Young and Martin Luther King Jr. I remember reading about King and his life, and of course I got to know about Morehouse and the fact that he had been here ... So I got to know about

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Morehouse fairly early and it really resonated in the struggle we were involved in.”

Another reason those struggles resonated with Masiyiwa is that he himself fought for five years against government control of the telecommunications industry. After growing his business, he decided to give back to thousands of Africa’s less fortunate by creating a social investment subsidiary, Capernaum Trust, to care for African orphans. But Masiyiwa wanted to do more.

That’s when he thought about Morehouse.

Masiyiwa talked with Young, who had become a trusted friend and adviser, and Ann Fudge, former member of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. From there the idea emerged for the Andrew Young International Scholars Program.

Masiyiwa wanted young, talented African men to come to Atlanta, specifically to Morehouse. At Morehouse, they could soak up the civil rights legacy and be steeped in Morehouse’s way of developing and educating men.

“I want to see the student who comes out of the Morehouse system as a much more confident, self-assured, more complete young man who is not struggling to find out who he is in the world,” he said.

In what amounts to a commitment of $6.4 million, Masiyiwa’s organization will fully fund four-year scholarships for 40 African students to come to Morehouse over a five-year period. At the same time, 40 African females will attend Spelman College.

Starting in fall 2012, 10 students will be chosen by Capernaum Trust, the education arm of Masiyiwa’s Higher Life Foundation, to come to Morehouse. (No young men will be chosen for fall 2013 as Spelman’s first class will enroll. Morehouse will get 10 additional students each year in 2014, 2015 and 2016.)

“Mr. Masiyiwa and his wife really have

a heart for seeing talented students who have leadership potential go get the best education in the world and then come back to Africa to lead the kinds of changes they want to see on the African continent,” said Phillip Howard ’87, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

“They hope the young men will bring the kinds of 21st-century management, leadership, social justice, civic engagement—all those things Morehouse provides—back to the continent to lead Africa into the 21st century.”

Return to Africa Howard, William Bynum, vice president for Student Services, and Kevin Williams ’85, dean of Admissions, flew to Zimbabwe last summer to interview Morehouse’s first class of Young Scholars. Masiyiwa’s Higher Life Foundation had already screened and chosen 20 finalists. They wrote essays and did personal interviews with the Morehouse contingent. Ten from Burundi and Zimbabwe were chosen. They (with their majors) are Abudu (computer science), Abel Gumbo (computer science), Takudzwa Feso (business accounting), Delight Magadza (computer science), Tenha Lovemore (business accounting), Hamim Nigena (computer science), Prosper Dzanwa (chemistry), Jonathan Penduka (biology), Brice Ndayisenga (business accounting) and Edmond Mariga (computer science).

The 10 students who weren’t chosen to come to Morehouse received full scholarships at a university in South Africa.

All were the best students in their regions.

In Burundi, education is stressed more than it has been in years past. Children between the ages of seven and 13 are required to attend school, but civil war ravaged the education system in parts of the country. Other parts of the country suffer from a lack of teachers.

The Zimbabwean educational system has a number of problems. In a nation of 1.4 million orphans, according to UNICEF, the

developmentnews

Front row (left to right): Brice Ndayisenga, Takudzwa Feso, Hamim Nigena, Delight Magadza Back row (left to right): Jonathan Penduka, Prince Abudu, Prosper Dzanwa, Edmond Mariga, Abel Gumbo, Tenha Lovemore

educational system suffers from high tuition fees; more than half of primary school students don’t reach secondary school; and as late as 2009, most rural schools were closed. The education system is trying to rebound, but has a long way to go.

The scholars plan to maximize the gift of education they have been given.

“I have a dream of fighting ethnic divisions in my country and I am encouraged to realize my vision,” Nigena said in an essay about why he applied for the Andrew Young International Scholars Program. “After all, I believe that I was born at a time like this to serve and develop my community.”

That kind of spirit impressed Bynum.

“All of them, without fail, talked about returning home to do something related to their fields to improve the conditions of their fellow countrymen,” he said. “I’m very excited about these young men. They are academically talented, driven, and once they make that cultural adjustment, the sky’s the limit on what they can achieve.”

Adjusting to America In early August, the new men of Morehouse—all wearing maroon Morehouse T-shirts—boarded a plane in South Africa to begin their journey of a lifetime. None of

them had been on a plane or even ventured beyond the borders of their hometowns.

So it was understandable that when they landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after a 16-hour flight, they were brimming with emotions that ranged from excitement to uncertainty.

“When we got off the plane, came out of the airport after landing in Atlanta, that was an experience, I have to say,” Gumbo said.

“I was very excited. We had been looking forward to this, to the day when we got on the plane. It was like the day wouldn’t get here.

It was like we’d only learned about the place because of the media and everything. But now we were excited because we were now in the place and not seeing it on television. So I was feeling excitement and looking forward to what was laying ahead.”

The students live on campus in the DuBois International House, but they each have an American roommate. They’ve also gotten involved in a variety of activities, attended their first American football and basketball games, danced the night away at the annual Homecoming Ball and made plenty of friends across the Atlanta University Center.

And they’ve all done well in their classwork.

It took some getting used to, though.

Things here are a little different.

The number of buildings, the size of B.T. Harvey Stadium and the availability of Internet amazed Abudu. Gumbo was blown away by the size of Forbes Arena and the fact that the College had an indoor pool. Getting used to the taste of foods and even the variations on the English language has also been challenging.

“The students have adjusted amazingly,” said Gwen Wade, Morehouse’s director of International Student Services and Study Abroad Programs. “They embrace all opportunities to learn as much as they can about Morehouse, their chosen majors and careers, the United States and the culture of Americans, particularly African Americans.

As far as academics are concerned, each of the young men performed very well during the fall 2012 semester, their first on campus. Two had 4.0 GPAs while three had 3.5 or better.

“In return, we—especially the residents of Dubois Hall—have learned from them all about Burundi and Zimbabwe,” Wade added. “I will never forget the first time Abel Gumbo had gumbo at Ambassador Andrew Young’s home.

He decided that he enjoyed hearing others call him by his surname Gumbo because every time they did, he thought of the delicious dish prepared by Ambassador Young.”

The African group is also happy about the help they’ve gotten from other students.

“Everyone has been like, ‘Call me if you need anything,’” Abudu said. “I was like, ‘What do I have to say?’ But what this all shows is that this society of people is so caring. It’s been an experience as I’ve had friends from Spelman as well, and really nice people to talk to and exchange experiences and better explain the society and culture.”

“Here, there is that spirit of brotherhood,” Gumbo added. “One brother is here to help some needs and then another brother is there to offer help and support. But overall, for me, it has been a kind of a cultural shift. I had to leave the things that I had known and then come here and adapt to some things.

It’s been an experience—an experience I will cherish and never forget.” n

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developmentnews

Where Credit Is Due Morehouse Recognizes Individual and Corporate Donors During Two Annual Events

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ach year, Morehouse hosts the highly anticipated Key Supporters Reception, which honors the College’s most committed donors.

The reception takes place during Founder’s Week on the Friday preceding the “A Candle and the Dark” Gala, Morehouse’s signature blacktie affair that highlights the College’s mission of producing leaders and pays tribute to African Americans whose extraordinary accomplishments set them apart in their respective fields. The gala is the institution’s largest annual fundraiser supporting Morehouse’s Endowed Scholarship Fund.

Individuals honored each year are the top contributors from the previous calendar year. The crowning event of the evening is the induction of members into the Morehouse College Leadership Circle whose cumulative or lifetime giving reaches or exceeds $100,000.

One of this year’s highlights was the induction of Trustee General James R. Hall ’57, who was inducted into the Leadership Circle at the Henry Lyman Morehouse level.

A few months earlier, in October 2012, the College saluted six of its key corporate partners with the President’s Vision Award and three outstanding individual corporate sponsors with the Corporate Champion Award during the 3rd Annual Morehouse Corporate Recognition Luncheon.

BMO Capital, AT&T Mobility, KeyBank Foundation, Johnson Controls, Novo Nordisk and Follett Higher Education Group were acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to the College.

Each organization supports Morehouse by providing employment opportunities, scholarship assistance and/or educational programming support and materials.

The Corporate Champion Award recipients were Margot James Copeland of the KeyBank Foundation, Charles Harvey of Johnson Controls and Ralph de la Vega of AT&T Mobility. They were honored because of their dedication and support of the ideals and mission of the College. n

Development Briefs

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Morehouse receives a $540,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation, which is committed to improving K-12 student education in the United States.

The foundation’s philosophy is that better school performance leads to higher student achievement, lower dropout rates and greater numbers of students entering and completing college. The College’s Black Male Initiative Program will be helpful in addressing some of the educational disparities in the local public schools.

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The Coca-Cola Foundation establishes the Coca-Cola 1st Generation Scholars Program at the College. Half of a $1.2-million grant to the College will support the new initiative, while the remaining $600,000 will fund the existing Coca-Cola Pre-College Leadership Program.

For the Coca-Cola 1st Generation Scholars Program, the College will select 15 students who are the first in their families to attend college and who demonstrate a financial need.

Scholarship recipients will receive $10,000 each year while attending Morehouse. They must maintain a minimum 2.8 grade point average to remain eligible for the scholarship.

AT&T Mobility has donated

n $200,000 to support the AT&T Mobility Global Leadership Scholars Program at the College. This initiative will be a highly structured leadership development and academic achievement program, with a focus on providing tuition scholarship support for incoming freshmen.

Trustee General James C. Hall ’57 (center) receives awards for his induction into the Leadership Circle. He’s pictured with Board Chairman Robert C. Davidson Jr. ’67 (left) and President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79.

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20-Win Basketball Season Harkens Back to Past Glory

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

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eading into the 2012-13 basketball season, He walked on the basketball team as a freshman.

Morehouse head coach Grady Brewer ’80 He blossomed to become a two-time All-SIAC knew he had a good team. He just had player and was the conference’s Preseason Player no clue his team would turn out to be great. of the Year this past season. This season, he aver “I knew that I had a little bit more talaged double figures in points per game and was ent that I’ve had over the years,” Brewer said. among the SIAC’s leaders in rebounding and “But to this magnitude, no.” blocked shots.

Brewer’s boys bounced back from having only one winning season over the past seven years to being a 20-win team that was ranked among the top teams in the NCAA Division II South Region this season. The Maroon Tigers went nearly two months without losing a game, ripping off a school-record 14 straight wins. The team narrowly missed out on an NCAA Division II Tournament bid after losing to Benedict in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) tournament championship, finishing the season with a 20-8 record.

It brought back memories of Morehouse basketball teams from 2000 to 2004 and former coach A.J. McAfee’s teams from 1988 to 1990, all winning at least 20 games each year.

“It’s all about having a winning attitude,” Brewer said. “This team just fought all the time. They never gave up, even when everybody else thought they would lose a game. They never thought they would lose a game.”

The Maroon Tigers were led by the 1-2 punch of senior center Andrae Nelson and junior guard Darrius Williams.

Williams, a former two-time All-SIAC defensive back on the Maroon Tiger football team, led the conference in scoring and rebounding and was named the SIAC’s Newcomer of the Year. The kinesiology major was named to the All-SIAC team and All-Tournament team.

Junior guard Darrius Williams

Nelson, a political science major, wasn’t even recruited to play basketball at Morehouse.

“I can’t say enough about Darrius,” Brewer said. “When I had him in the preseason, I had an idea of playing him at a guard position though he had been more of a forward. That worked out. And when you look in the dictionary and see the term ‘student-athlete,’ Andrae’s picture should be there. He did everything a student-athlete should do in a collegiate program.”

Other important players were Shawn Allen, a senior All-SIAC preseason pick who was among the conference’s top 15 in scoring and rebounding; senior Jonathan Tassin; and sophomore Austin Anderson.

But what made Brewer proudest was how his entire team came together to focus on defense, rebounding and sharing the basketball.

“They have really hung their hats on all of those things, which I call the non-negotiables,” he said. “That’s the surprising thing.

But I knew if they did that, we’d have a chance to win every game.”

That chance excited Morehouse fans who had been yearning for a winning season. They made Forbes Arena loud and lively again.

“We want to thank them for all the support,” Williams said. “It always gives you extra energy.”

Nelson added, “I mean, when you have the College’s president sitting behind you on the bench, that’s just an amazing feeling.”

Brewer believes his Maroon Tigers did something else important this season: they showed alumni, faculty, students and staff that basketball is still a big deal at Morehouse.

“It lets them all know that basketball still lives,” he said. “To win 14 games in a row, lose a couple and then win five in a row, it lets you know that you are doing something right. It lets you know that winning is becoming a part of what we’re doing. The guys bought into all the things we tried to teach them about winning on the court and winning off the court.” n s p r i n g

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onthefieldandcourt Nigerians Call Christopher Doomes ’93 to Help Coach Team

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

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ssistant track and field coach Chris Doomes ’93 was told to be ready for Innocent Egbunike’s phone call. He had no idea when the call would come or what it would be about.

Egbunike, a former African world champion sprinter, has become one of track and field’s most respected coaches. Connected years before by Morehouse head coach Willie Hill, Doomes had helped Egbunike train athletes before. The African loved the Morehouse Man’s work.

“He’d said, ‘There’s an opportunity that’s going to arise and I’m going to call you and I don’t want to hear any excuses,’” Doomes said.

The call came in March 2012. Egbunike was named head coach of the Nigerian Olympic team in the London 2012 Olympics and he wanted Doomes to be his assistant.

Egbunike then flew to Atlanta to meet with Hill to ask his permission.

“He said, ‘With the success of your program, with what you’ve

done, what I’ve seen your assistant do and what you’ve taught him, if possible, I want him to be my assistant this summer,’” Hill remembered.

Hill and athletic director Andre Patillo gave their approval and Doomes was off to Nigeria in June.

There, though the time was short, he and Egbunike helped train the men’s and women’s teams for the Nigerian Olympic trials and the African World Championships.

“After 12 years of Nigeria not doing well in the African Championships, they actually won the African Championship,” Doomes said proudly.

The teams went on to London, where they had a good showing. The Nigerian women did extremely well, with sprinters making the finals of the 100-meter dash and the 4x400 meter dash.

For Doomes, who has been Hill’s assistant for the past 18 years, being able to call himself an Olympic coach was the thrill of a lifetime—even if it wasn’t for the United States.

“Whether it’s for the U.S., Nigeria, Great Britain or whoever, that’s the pinnacle—to be an Olympic coach,” he said. n Go to http://athletics.morehouse.edu/index.aspx?path=mtrack&tab=trackandfield for more information about the Morehouse Maroon Tigers track and field program.

Flying Maroon Tigers Win Second Consecutive SIAC Cross Country Title THE FLYING MAROON TIGERS had four of the top five runners as the team won its second consecutive Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) 2012 Cross Country Championship meet.

Novian Middleton, Karlton Mitchell, Shinalola Agbede and Nicholas Hall finished first, second, third and fifth. Middleton was named the SIAC’s Most Valuable Player, while Willie Hill was named Coach of the Year.

The Maroon Tigers had already won the SIAC’s East Division regular season title, with Mitchell being named the East Division Runner of the Year.

Morehouse won the All-Academic Team Award. Senior business administration major Nicholas Hall led the SIAC Cross Country All-Academic Team with a 4.0 grade point average. Blake Bufford (senior, biology, 3.49) and Terrance White (senior, mathematics, 3.46) also were named to the All-Academic squad.

The Cross Country team closed out the season by qualifiying for the NCAA Division II South Regionals, where it finished eighth.

Middleton finished sixth; Mitchell was eighth. The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Association named both to the MOrEHOUsE MAgAZinE

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All-South Region team.

Middleton and Mitchell qualified for the national championship meet, where they finished among the nation’s top cross country runners. n

2012 Flying Maroon Tigers

F O O TB A LL

Photo Credit: USA Today Sports

Former Morehouse Football Stars Jerome Boger ’77 and Ramon Harewood Represent Morehouse in Super Bowl XLVII SUPER BOWL XLVII had a distinctive Morehouse flair this past January as two Morehouse Men made College athletic history in New Orleans.

Former Maroon Tiger offensive lineman Ramon Harewood was an integral part of the Baltimore Ravens offensive line this season.

He became the first football player from Morehouse Ramon Harewood to ever be part of a Super Bowl team.

The man who kept things on the field in order was also a Morehouse Man. Jerome Boger ’77 was the game’s head referee.

Boger, a former Morehouse quarterback, has been an NFL official since 2004 after serving as an official in SIAC, MEAC, Conference USA, the Arena Football League and NFL Europe. Boger became only the second African American to be head referee during a Super Bowl. The other was Mike Carey in 2008. n

Ten Maroon Tigers Get Postseason SIAC Football Honors TEN MAROON TIGERS football players received postseason honors from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) for their play during the 2012 season.

Two seniors, running back David Carter and kick returner Samuel Gilmore, along with sophomore offensive lineman Drew Wilkins, were firstteam All-SIAC picks.

Second team selections were senior offensive lineman Mike Coke, sophomore offensive lineman Richard David Carter Samuel Gilmore Drew Wilkins Washington, sophomore defensive lineman Clarence Christian, senior defensive back Justin Oliver and senior linebackers Elijah Anderson and Brandon Houston.

Junior wide receiver Sean Moore, chemistry major, was named to the SIAC’s All-Academic Team. Moore, the Maroon Tigers’ fourth-leading receiver this season, has a 3.71 grade point average.

Head coach Rich Freeman said the honors are good news for a team that finished with a disappointing 3-7 record, the first losing record in six years.

“It’s a good way to bring closure to a disappointing season because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re all about—making sure these kids reach their full potential,” he said.

“For these kids to get congratulated like that after the season we endured, it says a lot about their personal abilities and the respect our colleagues have for them. We’ll use that as a springboard into a better season next year.” n

2013 MOREHOUSE MAROON TIGERS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE 7th 14th 21st 28th 5th 12th 19th 26th 2nd 9th

Jerome Boger ’77 (left) officiates at this year’s Super Bowl.

SEPTEMBER Howard University (3rd Annual Nations Football Classic) Lane College Central State University Edward Waters College

Washington, D.C. 3:30 p.m.

Jackson, Tenn.

2 p.m.

Wilberforce, Ohio 1:30 pm.

B.T. Harvey Stadium 7 p.m.

OCTOBER Clark Atlanta University B.T. Harvey Stadium Tuskegee University Columbus, Ga. (79th Annual Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic) Albany State University Albany, Ga. Benedict College (Homecoming) B.T. Harvey Stadium NOVEMBER Fort Valley State University Fort Valley, Ga. Kentucky State University Frankfort, Ky. HOME GAMES IN MAROON s p r i n g

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World Into the Future “As you leave this hallowed red hill under the gaze of Benjamin Mays standing behind you, I am encouraged that you will spread the spirit of our Renaissance far and wide—that you will take the Five Wells into communities that have been neglected and abused, communities that desperately need new life and higher standards.”

–Robert M. Franklin ’75 10th President of Morehouse College

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President Franklin confers Doctors of Humane Letters on Elaine Tuttle Hansen (top), S. Truett Cathy (middle) and Strive Masiyiwa (below).

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y the time the line of nearly 500 men marched through the Morehouse campus to begin the 128th Commencement exercise, Lady Chioma Enwerem had already cried several times.

When her son, valedictorian Jamaji Nwanaji Enwerem, led the smiling and waving soon-to-be Morehouse Men onto the Century Campus, her eyes again flooded with tears.

Morehouse is so great,” she said with a big smile.

“She’s cried so many times,” added her husband, Sir Pamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem. “It’s exhilarating. We are so happy and so proud of him and all the students who are graduating with him. It’s been an enjoyable day. But we are thankful to God and we are very proud of the students who are graduating.”

It was a scene repeated throughout the Commencement ceremony as nearly 10,000 family members and friends—and a worldwide audience watching via Web stream—watched the College’s newest graduates.

Their final walk as a class was the highlight of a weekend of activities for Commencement/Reunion Weekend 2012.

Families began gathering earlier in the week as the senior class picked up caps and gowns. On Friday, alumni joined them as they ceremonially accepted the seniors into the alumni family during

B accalaureate

Sharpton Tells Graduates to Focus on Future

Keith Hollingsworth, professor of business administration, assists graduate with hooding.

the Rite of Final Passage ceremony in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

By Saturday, old classmates renewed friendships from years past as alumni met across campus and around Atlanta during a number of alumni activities. That afternoon, they again joined the class of 2012 when together they marched to the resting places of former presidents Benjamin E. Mays and Hugh Gloster in paying tribute to Morehouse Men who passed over the past year.

On Commencement morning, President Robert M. Franklin ’75 told the new Morehouse Men how important the moment was, not only for them, but also for the world.

“The time has come to go forth and prove that you were a worthy investment,” Franklin said during his final Commencement as president. “It is time to make good use of what you have learned.

It will serve you well as you serve others ...

“As you leave this hallowed red hill under the gaze of Benjamin Mays standing behind you, I am encouraged that you will spread the spirit of our Renaissance far and wide—that you will take the Five Wells into communities that have been neglected and abused, communities that desperately need new life and higher standards.”

Chick-fil-A founder and chairman S. Truett Cathy joined Elaine Tuttle Hansen, executive director of Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and Econet Wireless founder and chairman Strive Masiyiwa in receiving honorary Doctors of Humane Letters. n –Add Seymour Jr.

When the Rev. Al Sharpton talks, expect sacred cows to be slain.

Speaking at the Baccalaureate service, the last church service the men of Morehouse attend as a class, Sharpton delivered cutting repartees on several hot-button issues of the day.

Take, for instance, the issue of black clergy who refused to support President Barack Obama because of his endorsement of same-sex marriage.

“I want [them] to ask every homosexual in their congregation to stand, have them come to the front, and refund them all of their tithes and offerings.”

On the notion of a post-racial America: “You come at a confusing time where we can put a black family in the White House, but can’t walk a black teenager through a gated community in Sanford, Florida.”

Or on the infamous n-word: “We’re the only ones in America where you can call us anything and we glorify it. How you define yourself is how you confine yourself.”

He even told the class of 2012 to stop leaning on past Morehouse Men’s legacies and forge their own way into the future.

“You face an interesting time and you should collectively and then individually come to terms with these times,” he said to the capacity audience in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. “To talk about the class of ’48 and Dr. King and you not confront the reality of 2012 is to make a mockery of those ahead of you.

“The challenge that you face is that you have to get us across the river – [to the other side] where there is health care and equal opportunity and a fair criminal justice system,” he continued. “That’s the challenge you have. Don’t just be experts on past Morehouse Men. Focus on what today’s Morehouse Man is going to do about today and the future.”

He noted that civil rights leaders worked wonders with the—by comparison—primitive tools of their era, while today’s generation is squandering the advances available to them.

“Dr. King and Abernathy rewrote the American judicial order and changed the legislative agenda, and never had a fax machine,” he said.

“They changed the most powerful nation in the world, opened doors for your parents and you, and did it on a rotary phone.

“Now, you have 50 different ways to communicate and ain’t got nothing to say.

“It seems amazing to me that in the midst of all of this, we’re shown such little capacity to organize and move forward.”

The College unveiled an oil portrait of Sharpton, which now hangs in the Chapel’s International Hall of Honor with portraits of 179 other national and international human and civil rights leaders. Sharpton is a minister, human rights activist, television talk show host, and the founder and president of the National Action Network, a nonprofit civil rights organization headquartered in Harlem.

–Vickie G. Hampton

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Peace lanterns, representing burning victims who jumped into the water during the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, float down the Motoyasu River in the city’s downtown area. The lanterns symbolize the need for world peace.

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Morehouse Chapel Assistants Travel to Japan to Promote Peace and Global Unity

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

WHEN A CHOIR OF JAPANESE children reached a crescendo during a huge ceremony just outside of downtown Hiroshima in August 2012, tears started falling as hard as the radiation did during World War II. The hibakusha, the Japanese word for survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped by U.S. planes on the city, shifted uneasily in their chairs. Minutes later—at 8:15 a.m., the moment the bombs hit in 1945—two young people rang a peace bell.

This moment was why six Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel Assistants and their chaperones were in Japan for a week of commemoration and celebrations. They were there to see and understand the ravages of war and the need for peace.

They were to become peace ambassadors, as Lawrence E. Carter Sr., dean of King Chapel, kept telling them throughout the trip through Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the only way for them to understand the importance of that was to see the faces and hear directly from those who watched as others literally burned to death and entire cities were flattened.

“This certainly put everything in perspective,” said junior Stephen Green. “Hearing the vivid accounts of what really transpired took me to a different place. It absolutely moved my spirit because it really shows a global connection to suffering as an African American male, and it really connects me to everything that goes on.”

Hiroshima’s ceremony, which was witnessed by thousands of people and a huge international media hoarde on a sweltering hot day, was just one of a number of activities the Morehouse group took part in during what is billed as Peace Week in Japan. In Hiroshima and in Nagasaki (where a second bomb was dropped two days after Hiroshima was hit), schools and businesses were closed as the island nation stopped to remember and to deliver a message to the rest of the world: war is wrong.

“As Hiroshima citizens who experienced the horror of the first atomic bombing in history, we have been continuously appealing to the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of lasting world peace, in following with our mission to never allow this tragedy to be repeated,” said City Councilman Kazuo Tanekiyo.

Morehouse students and chaperones started their trip in Tokyo, after a 15-hour nonstop flight from Atlanta. They spent a day there, quickly seeing how different things are in the Far East. Drivers were on the left side of the road, cars were smaller, most people took trains in the crowded cities, and middle-class workers all dressed the same—white shirts or blouses, dark pants or skirts and dark shoes. Young people were extremely fashionable and dressed like American teenagers, though the only African Americans around seemed to be those from Morehouse. s p r i n g

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he Japanese will probably assume they are Africans because we get more Africans here than African Americans,” Steve Leeper, chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, explained. Leeper served as the group’s primary liaison, guide and interpreter.

They took a bullet train through the mountainous Japanese countryside to Hiroshima, where Carter spoke on the ways to peace at Hiroshima University.

When the Morehouse group arrived, Hiroshima students, faculty and staff applauded. In fact, a crowd of hundreds rose, applauded and waved flags while a group of students sang—in English—a verse of “We Shall Overcome” when the Morehouse group, introduced as American peace ambassadors, was led into the auditorium.

That kind of reception greeted the group everywhere they went. In a Tokyo building, a group of teenage Chinese tourists saw the African American men and asked to take photos.

Japanese children walked up to the men of Morehouse to ask them questions about America and their lives. Some people

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just thanked them for being there.

“It’s extremely important because we have almost nothing happening with either Africans or African Americans,” Leeper said. “There’s very, very little contact. There are cultural issues that are standing in the way between Africans, African Americans and Japanese. That’s one of the places where Hiroshima needs to grow.”

During lunch, senior Reginald Sharpe, the Chapel Assistants president, reflected on that topic.

“Travel eradicates xenophobia—the fear of the unknown, the fear of the foreign, the fear of travel,” he said. “When you travel, [you] realize that the same smiles that you see in America you will see here; the same love you feel at home, you feel here. These are our family members over here, though we sometimes look at each other as just ‘others’ who have nothing to do with us. But how can you drop a bomb on family?

World peace. It sounds cute, but really, it’s something we have to embrace. These are not strangers. They are our sisters, mothers and brothers.”

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he ceremony in Hiroshima mirrored the one in Nagasaki, a town on the far western edge of Japan. It was just as emotional as more hibakusha and their families were in attendance. Also in attendance was the grandson of Harry S. Truman, the president who ordered the bombings in 1945.

Afterward, the group went to the memorial of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan, honoring a group of Christians who were crucified in 1597.

Green immediately fell to his knees and started to pray.

“This is phenomenal,” Sharpe said as he gazed at a detailed wall mural of the Christians’ journey and captivity.

It was just one of a number of religious and cultural activities the group took part in.

In Hiroshima, they went to a temple where they joined activists who kneel in a circle and for 20 minutes quietly pray for peace each week. They leaned into the rivers that circle the city to send peace lanterns in remembrance of the dead. They even went to huge malls and shopping areas to buy trinkets for family and friends. The students quickly learned the phrase “sumimasen,” which is Japanese for “excuse me.”

But some of the most interesting cultural experiences came in the simplest of tasks, such as eating and sleeping.

Traditional hotels in Japan, particularly one in Nagasaki that the group stayed in, feature rooms that have few chairs, use communal baths and are a far cry from traditionally large American rooms.

“That’s it?” asked sophomore Donald Hayes when he peered into a room at the Nagasaki Hotel. “Okay, that’s kind of small.”

Meals also presented challenges. The entire group dove into plates of rice, peas, vegetables and fish that were included in every meal, including breakfast, where sophomore Devon Crawford winced when he saw a small fried fish, with teeth bared, on his plate.

“The rest of this is fine,” he said as he looked toward the noodles. “But I can’t do anything with this fish looking up at me like that.”

But the entire point of the trip was to open the Chapel Assistants—many of whom hope to become ministers—to the idea that they are part of creating a peaceful world.

“It really does have an effect on people when they come to the cities where the bombs were dropped to see with their own eyes the record of this bombing,” said Nagasaki Mayor Tomishisa Taue during a private meeting he requested with the students.

“For you men from Morehouse to come here and to actually think about this and be aware of how you feel and be willing to take that back to America with you, that is a really extremely valuable thing to us here in Japan.

So we warmly welcome you into the circle of people who are doing this work.”

The trip to Japan was an important tool in developing global citizens, said Carter.

“This trip was to make good on an aspect of the Chapel’s mission—to encourage our students to be ambassadors of peace and world citizens,” he said. “We want to make them conscious of the seriousness of the need for nuclear abolition. We also want to help them to understand that there are many different ways of being in the world, many different ways of being religious and to discover the universal language of music, laughter and a smile and to begin to get out of the boxes that keep us from loving the whole.

“The ultimate goal,” he said, “was to help our students to become moral cosmopolitans.” n Members of the Morehouse group who traveled to Japan, including Dean Lawrence Carter (center kneeling) pose with Japanese students. s p r i n g

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a TiMe TO LeaD JOHN SILVANUS WILSON JR. ’79 stood mesmerized as sunbeams streamed past him through the stained glass windows on Sundays in the early to mid-1960s.

All around him, well-dressed worshippers jumped, shouted, screamed and ran around the pews of the New Thankful Baptist Church in North Philadelphia.

A tall and firm man, the Rev. John S. Wilson Sr. was all fire and brimstone as he preached the gospel and the people responded. At the end, the church members walked out happy and spiritually fed, but Wilson, the preacher’s son, picked up something even more important: the power of the words.

“It really was a powerful experience to see that and know that after this is all over, I’m going home with this man and he was my dad,” Wilson said. “What it taught me was the power of words … and the power of vision, and that you can transport people. You can transform them.”

It became his first lesson in the concept of transformation. >

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By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

“We all knew there was this powerful place called Morehouse and there’s this powerful person you can be called a Morehouse Man ... I didn’t just want to be a man. I wanted to be special. I wanted to be a Morehouse Man.” MOREHOUSE MAGAZINE

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Decades later, Wilson is now armed with his own divinity degrees, as well as a long career in higher education, along with a deep affinity for historically black colleges and universities.

As Morehouse College’s 11th president, he brings all of that to his alma mater, a place that alumni love, but have been vocal about their concerns.

Long lines, out-of-date processes and a general old-school mentality for how things have always been done contribute to emotions that swing from each end of the spectrum. Wilson is on a mission to change that, and the College has become the focal point in what he promises to be a much more efficient operational era.

Hence, the importance of the lesson in transformation.

Transformation has been a concept at the center of his life and career. He, along with his brother and two sisters, got a firm foundation in education and spirituality from their father and mother, who was a teacher.

“And the ethic in all four of us, as promoted very heavily by our parents, was be smarter,” he said. “Be smarter than the other person.”

That lesson became more important after his parents divorced and he and his siblings moved with their mother (who remarried) to the Philadelphia suburbs, which weren’t as racially tolerant as the city.

“What got us through that was my mom,” he said. “She was going through that too, as a minority teacher in that environment. But what got us through was mom saying, ‘Your weapon is your mind. Be smarter. Don’t try to fight them. Keep your poise and keep your composure and get A’s when they are getting C’s.’

“It invested us early in the life of the mind,” he said. “You can actually outthink people so that you can have better outcomes for yourself and for those on whose behalf you are working.”

Another shift in their move was a change in church homes. The pastor at Wilson’s new church was the Rev. Robert Johnson Smith Sr. ’37, a very proud Morehouse Man.

Wilson jokes now that Smith seemingly preached Morehouse as much as he did the gospel. His church sent many intelligent young black men to Morehouse who became successful in college and in life.

The accomplished student and high school baseball player also looked at Penn State and Lincoln universities. By the time he graduated, Wilson had decided he was going to Lincoln.

“But at some point in late July, I went to my mom and dad and said, ‘I think I want to go to Morehouse,” he remembered. “I don’t know. It was

President Wilson meets with students.

something spiritual. I don’t mean to sound dramatic or romantic about it, but it was something that I do not fully understand. All I know is it was something very powerful.”

Wilson and his mom went to Smith to talk about his change of heart. Smith immediately called Hugh Gloster, then the president of Morehouse, and told him about the promising young man who wanted to come to Morehouse.

Two weeks later, Wilson was at Morehouse in Thurman Hall, room 206.

“I’m telling you, whatever happened that shifted my attention to Morehouse was not of this world,” he said. “I understood that this was meant to be.”

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Wilson majored in business at Morehouse, mainly because he was going to be a funeral director. He was being groomed to take over his uncle’s funeral home.

But once he graduated from Morehouse in 1979 with a business degree, along with a minor in religion and philosophy, he was ready to examine his religious side. He went to graduate school at Harvard Divinity School, where he delved into the spiritual questions he had as a young man.

That was only one of the two issues he wanted to tackle in life.

“It was a debate for me, even at Morehouse,” Wilson said. “I said, ‘I want to have a major influence, a profound influence, on either the black church or the black college.’”

While at Harvard, he met Charles Vert Willie ’48, a professor in Harvard’s school of education. Willie became a mentor for Wilson, who had decided to add a second master’s degree, this one in education, and to get a doctorate. His path was now in higher education, with the future of black colleges squarely on his mind.

President Wilson signs Founder’s Day documents.

After a brief period of renaissance in the 1980s, historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, have been trying to figure out their future. Myriad problems mounted for this sector of the higher education community.

Of the nation’s 105 HBCUs, only six had endowments of more than $100 w i n t e r

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feature million in 2012, according to a survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The HBCU with far and away the largest endowment—Howard University with $460 million—ranked 158th of 831

colleges and universities in the nation.

Spelman College ranked 211th with an endowment of $309 million. Morehouse wasn’t included in the listing, but would have ranked 345th with an endowment of $130 million.

President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 Hometown: Philadelphia

Administrative Posts: Executive director, Whit e House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universitie s (2009-2013); executive dean, Virginia campus, George Washington Unive rsity (2002-2006); senior associate vice president, George Wash ington University (2001); director of Foundation Relations and School Deve lopment Services, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994-200 1); assistant provost for Outreach, Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology (1997-2001); associate director of Corporate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1990-1991) Faculty Member: Associate professor of high er education, George Washington University Graduate School of Educ ation (2007-2009) Civic Service: Member of the boards of trust ees for Andover Newton Theological School, Spelman College, Independent Federal Savings Bank and the Samaritans; Academic advisory board member, Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund ; Advisory board member, The Kresge Foundation HBCU Initia tive and The Mott Foundation/George Ayers Associates; Founder, chairman and co-director, Building Bridges Honors/Awards: Kellogg Fellow, Kellogg Natio nal Fellowship Program (1990-1993); Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Educ ation (1990); Woodrow Wilson Administrative Fellow (1985) Family: Wife, Carol Espy-Wilson; twin daug hters Ayana and Ashia; son, John Silvanus Wilson III (Jay) Morehouse Man: President of the Greater Bosto n Morehouse College Alumni Association; Bennie Leadership Award Honoree, 1998

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DOSSIER

Education: B.A., Morehouse College, 1979 M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 1981 Ed.M., Harvard University, 1982 Ed.D., Harvard University, 1985

According to Marybeth Gasman in a March 2013 story in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, national alumni giving at public HBCUs is at 5 to 7 percent, and at 9 to 11 percent at private HBCUs. This compares to an alumni giving rate at non-HBCUs of around 25 percent.

According to the Office of Institutional Advancement, Morehouse’s giving rate is 36 percent.

Competition with non-HBCUs for African American students, particularly black males, has gotten fierce with more black students beginning to choose nonHBCUs.

And over the past two decades, a number of HBCUs have struggled to hold on to their regional accreditation.

Whether true or not, HBCUs nationwide have had the reputation of giving students a poor daily experience with everything from customer service dealing with offices like financial aid to having older facilities and poor infrastructure. Even the quality of food.

All of those issues keep the question about the relevancy of HBCUs in the air, even though Wilson has said in the past that the relevancy issue for HBCUs is a passé conversation.

“Times have always been tough for HBCUs as they have not had the same resources over time due to historic forms of discrimination,” said Gasman, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. She is one of the nation’s

President Wilson hosts the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala for the first time.

leading experts on HBCUs. “In the past 10 years, the nation’s economy has been very tight and when times are tight, the poor gets hit worse than those with large savings accounts.

Many HBCUs live paycheck to paycheck and thus they have been hit hard. That said, many institutions have struggled.”

President Wilson expresses gratitude for a $3-million gift from the Ray Charles Foundation during the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala.

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For Morehouse and other HBCUs to thrive and fulfill President Barack Obama’s charge to increase the number of college graduates in this nation, Wilson believes one simple concept has the answers to tackling the problems Gasman mentioned.

“The soundtrack you should hear is a trumpet,” he said. “But the soundtrack you hear is a violin. With HBCUs and many nonprofits, we tell a sad story and the violin denotes sadness. But President Wilson with former First Lady Shirley A. Massey at the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala s p r i n g

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feature the trumpet evokes greatness. And I’ve said, ‘Hey, why don’t we try it the other way?’ Why don’t we shift from saying ‘support us and correct the past’ to ‘invest in us and create the future’?

That’s a posture shift and a perspective shift that I think we should try, and we’re going to do that here.”

That became a mantra of Wilson’s after President Obama appointed him executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. HBCUs needed to go beyond what their historical problems were and began to focus on the parts where they excelled.

“There’s an old-school mentality that has to make everything like a civil rights movement,” he said. “It has to be based in complaint. There are some who’ve not kept up. Let’s just say there’s an old school and a new school, and I am decidedly new-school. And

President Wilson socializes with parents during Parents Weekend activity.

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I’m as new-school as Barack Obama is new-school.

“HBCUs can—should—be a lot further along in terms of closing the gap between where we are and where the best in the industry are,” he said. “But here’s what amazed me more than anything else. I’ve studied the history and our forefathers and foremothers… I’m talking about Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ben Mays…their ambition was off the charts. They felt strongly that these institutions would progress to a point where they would become the best in the world.

Let’s just say I felt while I was at the White House that high ambition was not nearly as detectable looking around as it was looking back. I had and have a high ambition. I think we need to aspire and I think we need to play the trumpet.”

Wilson went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. He spent 16 years there, becoming the director of Foundation Relations and assistant provost, where he managed and reached a record annual revenue stream of more than $50 million. He was at George Washington University from 2001 to 2009, where he served as the executive dean of the university’s Virginia campus.

At GWU, he also focused his research and teaching on advancement and finance in higher education and the role of black colleges and universities.

And at the White House Initiative for HBCUs, the Initiative helped to increase annual funding to HBCUs by more than $1 billion, including an increase of $400 million in Pell Grant funding.

With that foundation, Wilson has formed a model for how the trumpet can be sounded at the nation’s HBCUs. That model will be formed and put into effect at Morehouse College.

It is his vision of “a cathedral of excellence,” which has as its foundation preeminence in character and capital.

The key to realizing his vision will be in streamlining and clarifying the College’s identity. That clear identity would attract more donors and allow the College to operate more seamlessly, Wilson said.

During a meeting with faculty, staff and students, Wilson played a clip from the film “Amistad,” in which a slave named Cinque picked and scratched his way out of his shackles.

“I want to submit to you that this is a metaphor for me because I want to get Morehouse College to a new level of freedom,” he said. “The moment that you see captured on that freeze frame when the shackles are finally unlocked is the moment that Cinque is able to do a world of things that he could not do before he was shackled. We are, too, shackled by too many things, but we need to get through it with determination like that. That is the goal of my presidency here.”

”Why don’t we shift from saying ‘support us and correct the past’ to ‘invest in us and create the future’? That’s a posture shift and a perspective shift that ... we’re going to do here.”

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President Wilson and First Lady Carol Espy-Wilson host the Founder’s Day luncheon.

Right now, Wilson sees two Morehouses: one represented by noise, or more negative connotations of the College, and the other signal, where the College’s positive and shining aspects lead the way.

The signal-to-noise ratio, an idea he adopted from the College’s new first lady, University of Maryland, College Park engineering professor Carol EspyWilson, has to be adjusted so that noise—such as operational dysfunction or too few applications or the slow fade into becoming “just another college”—is drowned out by the College’s soaring signal. That signal consists of, among other things, operational excellence and becoming the recognized destination for African American male students.

“We want a stronger identity, we want a higher signal-to-noise ratio, we want a stronger vitality, we want an enhanced campus culture,” he told the Morehouse community. “We want a stronger civility, we want a new petition and a new presence in the philanthropic marketplace. We want greater audibility and visibility, we want prominence as the bully pulpit for the optimal African American male and the optimal male.”

The College will again become the place that Benjamin E. Mays talked about in his book, Born to Rebel, Wilson said.

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something at Morehouse in 1921.’ This is when he first came to Morehouse. He came to Morehouse as a professor in 1921 and he said ‘already in place there was this something that sent men out in life with a sense of mission, believing that they could accomplish whatever they set out to do. This priceless quality was still alive when I returned in 1940.’

“And then here’s a mandate: ‘And for 27 years I built on what I found, instilling in Morehouse students the idea that, despite crippling circumscriptions, the sky was their limit. There is still this intangible something at Morehouse College.’

“Building on that intangible something, that special something, is what I take to be the mandate of every Morehouse president,” Wilson said.

“And to the degree that you are not aware of it, to the degree that it is not readily detectable or measurable as it was for Mays, we need to amplify it. We need to enrich it. We need to make it more obvious to people. This is the mandate that I have and that we have.”

The future Morehouse will be one that becomes a national leader in operational efficiency, a point that Morehouse staff applauded loudly for each time Wilson mentioned it during his first four months on campus.

It will be a campus where faculty members think outside the box and about how to grow their programs and improve their teaching. More faculty research would be encouraged with higher salaries and lighter teaching loads.

Wilson wants men of Morehouse to continue to go out into the world and lead, armed with a stellar liberal arts education that is cutting-edge and forward-thinking.

And he wants to build on the sense of brotherhood that has united Morehouse Men throughout the College’s 146-year history. It’s something he wants students to embrace now more than ever.

“That, to me, was the best thing about Morehouse,” Wilson said. “These guys were intending to go out and make a mark in the world. This was no laid-back experience for us. I will tell you that we wanted to know each other’s dreams. We wanted to encourage each other, and we were encouraging each other.”

Iconic filmmaker Shelton “Spike” Lee ’79 has been one of Wilson’s closest friends since they were freshmen in 1975 (in fact, Lee credits Wilson with providing the two quotes that are at the end of Lee’s critically acclaimed film “Do the Right Thing”). Lee said that supportive spirit was expressed on the final day the entire class of 1979 was together.

“We walked across the King Chapel stage and he said, not just to me, but to some other people, that he was going to come back to become president,” Lee remembered. “I said, ‘I believe you.’ He was Morehouse president material.”

First Lady Carol Espy-Wilson Hometown: Atlanta Education: B.S., Stanford University, 1979 M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981 E.E., MIT, 1984 Ph.D., MIT, 1987 Faculty Member: University of Maryland, College Park, professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering Department; Director and Founder, Speech Communication Lab, University of Maryland, College Park; Boston University (1990-2001)

DO SS IER

For Wilson, the key to Morehouse’s future is building forever capacity, particularly financially.

The endowment at Morehouse, as well as all HBCUs, must increase to afford the resources to ensure that the Morehouse experience keeps pace with the demands of the future. That is the only way Morehouse can be Morehouse, he said. Alumni support that is traditionally low at HBCUs will be high at Morehouse as Morehouse Men will lead the way in showing the world what pride in their alma mater really means, he added.

Wilson set an example when he served as the president of the Greater Boston Morehouse College Alumni Association, where he led an effort that raised more than $1 millon in endowed scholarship funds at Morehouse, and several hundred thousand dollars for community outreach.

By May 2013, Wilson wants alumni giving to reach 65 percent, if not better. It’s one of the reasons he challenged Morehouse alumni to contribute $10 million. It will become a point of pride when President Obama comes to campus to deliver the 129th Commencement address, the first for a Georgia college or university by a sitting president in three-quarters of a century.

John Silvanus Wilson Jr. has a vision for Morehouse that appreciates its past—but drives ambitiously towards the future. He is honest— sometimes brutally—about the challenges before him and the College community. But the challenges may have met their match.

“I will not apologize for wanting to be the best because Morehouse must be Morehouse,” he said.

“We are going to shoot for the stars and if we get the moon, we will not be satisfied.” n

Honors and Awards: University of Maryland’s 2012-2013 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award; NSF Minority Initiation Award (1990-1992); Clare Booth Luce Professorship (19901995); National Institutes in Health Independent Scientist Award (1998-2003); Honda Initiation Award (2004-2005); Radcliffe Fellow (2008); Maryland Daily Record Innovator of the Year (2010) Entrepreneurship: Founded OmniSpeech LLC in 2009, to develop technology for communications devices (mobile phone s, hearing aids, first-responder radios) to extract speec h for better sound in noisy environments.

Noteworthy: Espy-Wilson was the first African American woman to get a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT.

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founder’s day observance

Celebrating History,

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

T

he Rev. William Jefferson White knew he was needed. Not just as a talented cabinet maker and craftsman, but as an influential church leader, an editor who fervently fought against racial discrimination through the written word. He also started the civil rights organization, the Georgia Equal Rights Convention.

But the work that has continued for 146 years is his founding of what is now Morehouse College.

“As we look at the long life of William Jefferson White, we can say, ‘Servant, well done,’” said Founder’s Day Convocation keynote speaker Bobby Donaldson, a professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on White.

White’s legacy, as well as the College’s legacy of service to the world through thousands of proud graduates, was celebrated during a number of events from Feb. 14 to 19 during the 146th Annual Founder’s Day Observance.

“You must finish the work left undone,” Donaldson said.

“You must serve the present age. We lift up the words of the song sang in Sale Chapel generations ago, ‘Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning.’ Men of Morehouse, remember your

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(Top) President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 adds his signature to an official document that features all of the College’s past presidents; (Bottom) Dr. Frank Smith, civil rights activist and politician, receives the Presidential Renaissance Medallion from President Wilson (right) as Provost Willis B. Sheftall ’64 and Maureen Dinges, associate professor of speech communication, look on.

Making History

(Top left) The Rev. Willie Francois III ’09 delivers the Founder’s Day Sunday Worship Service message; (top right) President Wilson and Chairman of the Board Robert Davidson ’67 raise a toast to the 25th anniversary of the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala along with gala founder Robert Bolton ’86 and Hardy Franklin ’83; (bottom right) Gala crowd’s exuberant reaction to news that President Barack Obama will be Commencement speaker; (bottom left) unveiling of the Black History Month stamp honoring the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

legacy. Do not grow weary in what you are doing well ... Keep your lamps trimmed and burning and forever hold the legacy of Morehouse College.”

In the audience of the Convocation, held on Thursday in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, was the family of Henry Lyman Morehouse. A prominent official with the American Baptist Home Mission Society and supporter of historically black colleges and universities during the 19th century, Morehouse became the College’s namesake 100 years ago in 1913.

The next morning, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its latest Black History Month stamp in the lobby of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel where King’s words are etched in the walls. The stamp commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.

“I can think of no more fitting venue than this to unveil the stamp commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation than to be surrounded by the words of Morehouse’s favorite son, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ’48, who actualized the words of Lincoln and made them come alive,” said associate campus minister, the Rev. Ernest Brooks ’05.

Later that day, President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 joined Howard University professor Ivory Toldson, Marquette University professor Howard Fuller, and educator and gospel music great the Rev. Dr. Marvin Sapp for the Founder’s Day Symposium and Town Hall Meeting titled “Innovations in Educating African American Students Throughout the Academic Pipeline.”

A capacity audience of 400 people filled the Bank of America Auditorium for the panel discussion.

“People need to expect to pay a price for mediocrity and

>

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founder’s day observance

Former Bennie and Candle honorees take the floor during “A Candle in the Dark” Gala.

failure,” Wilson said. “In too many of our educational environments … I think there are too many faculty and staff who are underperforming, who have checked out, who are probably worse than mediocre and they pay no price for it … The people who pay the price for it are our kids. That’s the bottom line.”

Grammy-nominated R&B star Eric Benét closed out the day with the annual Founder’s Day Concert in King Chapel.

After a stirring opening performance by neo-soul singer Avery*Sunshine, Benét went through a string of his hits, such as “Spiritual Thing,” “Sometimes I Cry” and “Spend My Life With You” for an appreciative audience.

Saturday morning, five of the six 2013 Bennie and Candle Award honorees took over the stage in the Emma and Joe Adams Concert Hall of the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center for “Reflections of Excellence.” It was an opportunity for students, President Emeritus Walter E. Massey ’58 and former First Lady Shirley A. Massey on the dance floor after the gala; members of the group Gold Shades perform at the gala.

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parents, faculty and staff and others to hear directly from each honoree about the trials and tribulations of reaching success.

This year’s honorees were Willis B. Sheftall Jr. ’64 (Bennie Leadership), Calvin Mackie ’90 (Bennie Achievement), Milton L. Little Jr. ’76 (Bennie Service), Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman (Candle in Business), Charles F. Bolden Jr. (Candle in Military Service and Aeronautical Science) and Laurence J. Fishburne III (Candle Lifetime Achievement in Arts and Entertainment).

Fishburne told the audience that mentors are important.

For him, that person was the late actor Roscoe Lee Browne, a 2007 Candle Award honoree.

“He made me respect myself. He made me think more of myself,” he said. “I was lucky to have him. Any time that you encounter somebody, whether they are older or younger, same sex, different sex—anybody that you encounter who makes

Bennie and Candle honorees include (l-r): Milton J. Little Jr. ’76 (Bennie in Service); Calvin Mackie ’90 (Bennie in Achievement); Willis B. Sheftall Jr. ’64 (Bennie in Leadership); Dr. Wilson; Charles F. Bolden (Candle in Science); Laurence J. Fishburne III (Candle in Arts and Entertainment); and Ulysses L. Bridgeman Jr. (Candle in Business)

you feel really good about yourself—that’s somebody you want to stay close to. That’s somebody you want to nurture a relationship with. They want to improve you and you want to improve them. And you both get better.”

The evening was one of elegance and style during the silver anniversary of the “A Candle in the Dark” Gala at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. The six honorees received their awards and gave gracious acceptance speeches after rousing introductions by Morehouse student presenters.

But the evening’s highlight came in two pieces of news: President Wilson surprised the crowd with the announcement that President Barack Obama would be the 2013 Commencement speaker.

And the Ray Charles Foundation presented Morehouse

with a check for $3 million to name the Music Academic Building after Charles’ mother, Aretha Robinson.

“This has been a remarkable evening,” Wilson said as the crowd stood and applauded. “This has been an incredible week.”

The week didn’t end there. Sunday, the Rev. Willie Francois III ’09, associate minister of Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, delivered the sermon for the Founder’s Day Sunday Worship Service. And the Morehouse College Glee Club lifted their voices during the 2013 Spring Concert in King Chapel. n

(Below) Honorees join President Wilson and First Lady Carol Espy-Wilson for singing of the alma mater; (top right) Avery*Sunshine opens for the Founder’s Day Concert; (bottom right) Eric Benét is headliner for Founder’s Day Concert.

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brothertobrother

‘We Must Bring Purpose and Strive Back to Education’

By Calvin Mackie ’90

As a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D., a motivational STEM speaker and a former college professor, you’d probably be surprised to hear that I think education is useless.

In America, the educational system has moved away from developing citizens to serve their fellow man to the unadulterated pursuit of standardized success at any cost. Mixed in with a sea of social change and celebrity obsession, somehow we’ve all lost sight of the goal of education: creating passionate students who are employable, teachable and adaptable in a dynamic world. Students are turned off for a number of reasons right now.

To get back on track, we must recognize that education is useless if students aren’t thirsty for it!

I’ll always remember this lesson that my grandma and grandpa taught me when I was a young kid. I was trying to force a pig to eat the slop I had prepared for him, when my uneducated but wise grandmother stated the truism, “Baby, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink!”

Much like the pig, today’s students don’t want the education we have prepared. They either aren’t hungry or they’ve gotten their fill from somewhere else. In response to my grandma, my grandpa yelled back, “Yeah, you can’t make him drink, but you sure can get him thirsty!”

We can bring students their education and put it on a silver platter right in front of them, but if they don’t want it, they’re not going to eat it. How can we make our students crave it? How can we get them motivated and passionate about learning again? The key is to get back to basics and remember what education is really about.

The primary purpose of education isn’t to teach students how to make money, but to provide them with the tools and mechanisms so that they can be FREE. Free to create, free to produce and free to do the things God has ordained and created them to do. As W.E.B. Du Bois stated, “The purpose of education is not to make men and women into doctors, lawyers, and engineers; the purpose of education is to make doctors, lawyers, and engineers into men and women.”

Education affords people the ability to develop and expand their personal and collective capacities. It not only gives them skills, it helps increase their sense of “somebodiness” and purpose. Only when we bring purpose and service back to education, coupled with

utility and training, will we win back the hearts and souls of America’s students.

Now, it’s not going to be that easy. “The Silent Epidemic,” a 2006 study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, found that annually, nearly one-third of all public high school students fail to graduate with their class. Nearly one-half of all blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans are flunking out, too. In simple terms, the present-day education system is failing the very people it’s supposed to serve: the students.

One of the biggest issues is that our children are growing up in a culture where their passions are advertised and sold to them—there’s no room for them to grow on their own terms. They are more motivated to become the next American Idol, contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” or hip-hop mogul than to become leaders of the free world or create the next Internet. What else can explain the fact that President Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian have the same number of Twitter followers?

What we need to understand is that students have motivation right now, they are just motivated by the wrong things, superficial things that do not require nor promote the education needed to succeed in the 21st century and only make them “feel good.” And so education is rendered useless. As teachers, parents, motivators and concerned citizens, we must shift our strategy to combat this problem and make our students thirsty!

Rather than starting with lesson plans that attempt to go right to the brain, teachers need to grab students’ attention and win their hearts first. Show them the amazing lifestyle they can earn by becoming a contributing member of the knowledge economy. Put new role models in front of them—people they should look up to, follow on Twitter and like on Facebook.

Help them develop the ability to achieve whatever career they want, whether that is as a doctor, lawyer, engineer or teacher.

Remind them every day that when you “put something in your head, no one can take that from you.”

In the end, it’s up to us to reignite and resuscitate America’s students.

Service and self-agency are the essence of motivation in education. When they return, so will our students. n Calvin Mackie ’90 is an author, speaker, former engineering professor and technology entrepreneur. This essay appeared in CNN’s “Schools of Thought.”

“When we bring purpose and service back to education, we will win back the hearts and souls of America’s students.”

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alumninews national alumni association president’s message A Clarion Call—Stepping Up Now and Later The announcement of President Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States changed the world forever. Whether people loved or hated the new leader of the free world, they understood that the course of history took a turn when America elected this young, black scholar as its leader. He became the personification of our metaphorical “overcoming.”

Fast forward to January 2013 and the announcement of President Obama’s appearance at the College’s 2013 Commencement. With this announcement came international exposure for Morehouse—and there is so much more exposure to come. I have received numerous calls asking about opportunities to see the president of the United States. Alumni have joined and paid lifetime dues in hopes that they’ll get the opportunity to see him.

This historic engagement has most certainly served as a call to action to the alumni community—but Morehouse has needed the help of her alumni since its inception. Soon we will celebrate our sesquicentennial and reflect on our 150 years of existence. As I considered our institution’s greatness, I was pleased to find a quote from President Obama that lends some insight into his perspective of greatness. The following is from his 2009 inaugural address: Greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.

As alumni, we must be proactive in our support of our alma mater. Perhaps we should follow the advice of our commander in chief and carry the College up the “long, rugged path toward prosperity.” Let’s be the doers. Let’s be the risk-takers and workers who do not look for recognition and fame, but who earnestly wish to help others.

We must become involved in our chapters not only as members, but also as leaders. We must become mentors to our pre-alumni students and to those in the surrounding community. The truth is this: After the pomp and circumstance, there will still be students who need scholarships. There will still be young men who need mentoring.

There will still be a great need for assistance in recruiting high-caliber students to our alma mater.

The Association is working every day to make our alumni, chapters and Association better. One such initiative will be launched in spring/summer 2013. The Alumni Association and the Boys and Girls clubs of America have partnered to give alumni the opportunity to mentor our young people. This initiative will increase mentorship in clubs located in major urban centers and will provide an easy way for alumni to get involved in their local communities.

The Association also is creating a national program for entrepreneur support. Our alumni who are entrepreneurs have been the risk-takers who launched businesses that support our communities and provide opportunities for employment and job creation. Our hope is to do more to connect our student entrepreneurs with our alumni entrepreneurs—which can help create a stream of successful alumni entrepreneurs who can one day be of service to students who were once in their place. We invest in them now, so that they will invest in others later.

Celebrate with us as we host President Barack Obama in May. However, once graduation is over and the Commencement address has been given, maintain your spark and commitment. These will be key to Morehouse moving further toward its destined greatness.

The call has gone out across the land: We need you—all of you.

“Perhaps we should follow the advice of our commander in chief and carry the College up the ‘long, rugged path toward prosperity.‘ Let’s be the doers. Let’s be the risk-takers and workers who do not look for recognition and fame, but who earnestly wish to help others.“

Kevin R. McGee ’93 President s p r i n g

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alumninews Robert C. Davidson Jr. ‘67 and Wife Appointed Arts and Culture Ambassadors

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he Pasadena Community Foundation recently announced the appointment of Robert C. Davidson Jr. ’67, chairman of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees, and his wife, Faye, as arts and culture ambassadors. The appointment puts a spotlight on the many artistic and cultural institutions in the Pasadena area that are worthy of philanthropic support.

The foundation has awarded nearly $2.3 million to prominent arts organizations, as well as smaller and emerging organizations, in the local Robert C. and Faye Davidson community.

“The artistic and cultural resources in this community are vast,” said Mr. Davidson.

“We should not take for granted the blessings of living amidst

world-class museums, varied and significant architecture, and ready access to exceptional theatrical and musical performance, as well as artistic educational institutions,” added Mrs. Davidson.

The Davidsons, who are collectors of museum-quality art by historic African American artists, are involved in several arts and educational institutions. Mr. Davidson is the chairman of the board of the Art Center College of Design and has served on the Huntington Library’s Collections Committee, as well as the Board of Overseers.

“By having the Davidsons as our Arts and Culture Ambassadors, we will be able to fund worthy organizations in our community that may otherwise have been overlooked,” said Jennifer DeVoll, executive director of the foundation. n

Corey J. Hebert ’92 Launches First Health Website Targeted Toward African Americans

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orey J. Hebert ’92 recently launched BlackHealthTV, which he describes as the first academically based, health information website for African Americans in the world.

“It is so unique because it is predominantly online video,” Hebert explains, who added that the website grew from his recognition that there is a lack of health content geared toward African American consumers seeking health information online.

Academic partners for the site include Harvard University School of Medicine and the Morehouse School of Medicine, among others. In addition, BlackHealthTV has identified an all-star staff of experienced health journalists and television producers who specializes in taking complex medical topics and explaining them in an easy-to-understand manner.

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Hebert has plenty of air-time experience to draw upon as the CEO of BlackHealthTV. He is the chief medical editor for NBC Station WDSU-TV and has been featured many times on national broadcasts, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Early Show,” “NBC Nightly News,” “Good Morning America,” “Countdown” and “Dr. Nancy.”

He hosts a weekly radio show on Citadel Broadcasting Network, aptly titled “Doctor for the People.” He also is a contributor to the Discovery Channel show, “How Stuff Works” and the “Dr. Oz Show.” He was featured in the Spike Lee ’79 feature film, “When the Levees Broke.”

Currently, Hebert is the medical director of the Louisiana Recovery School District and an assistant professor at Tulane University Medical Center. n

Corey J. Hebert ’92

classnotes 1950s Walter E. Massey ’58 was recently voted by the Board of Governors of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) to extend his appointment as president through the end of the 2015-16 academic year. He also delivered the inaugural James E. McLeod Memorial Lecture in Higher Education at Washington University in St. Louis. His lecture was titled “Liberal Arts: The Higgs Boson of Higher Education.”

1970s Robert M. Franklin ’75 was a panelist on the Civil Rights Movement Roundtable Discussion at The Carter Center in August 2012 as part of Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game weekend.

Mack Roach III ’75 was recently appointed by President Barack Obama as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board. He currently serves as a professor of Radiation Oncology and Urology at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), a position he has held since 2000. In addition, Roach has served as the chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCSF since 2007.

Joseph Clark ’83 Opens Soul Food and Caribbean Restaurant in Kansas City Joseph Clark ’83, along with his brother, Robert, and their father, Dr. Granville Clark, recently opened a new Kansas City eatery called Clark’s American Caribbean Restaurant, which serves classic soul food and Caribbean dishes.

As a Morehouse student majoring in psychology, Clark earned extra money by working in restaurants as a dishwasher, waiter and cook’s assistant.

“I used to bug the line cooks about the dishes they were preparing,” Clark says. “I would ask why they were using this ingredient instead of that one or how they were preparing certain kinds of meat.

It was the beginning of my culinary education.”

The 125-seat restaurant offers both lunch and dinner.

Clark says he was drawn to the location because of the historic charm of the old neighborhood.

“It’s definitely an up-and-coming area, and the neighborhood has always been a solid restaurant destination,” he said. “This neighborhood has a very distinctive feel. Once you cross 39th Street, heading north, you’re in a very different community. It’s a very eclectic neighborhood.” n

Shelton ‘Spike’ Lee ’79 debuted his film, “Red Hook Summer,” at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He also stopped by his alma mater for a book signing before the film’s premiere in Atlanta.

1980s Freddie Asinor ’85 has been appointed dean of the Delaware State University College of Education, Health and Public Policy.

He most recently served as a part-time executive director of the Ocular Melanoma Foundation in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he served as the executive vice president of the One World Foundation and the president and chief academic officer of MASA Healthcare.

Kevin D. Rome ‘89 was recently named the 19th president of Lincoln University (Missouri). Rome, who has been the vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at North Carolina Central

University since 2008, takes office of the 3,100-student institution on June 1.

Derek Ignatius Willis ’89 recently earned a doctorate in education leadership from Argosy University.

He earned a bachelor’s in English from Morehouse and master’s and specialist degrees in library science from Clark Atlanta University. He also earned a specialist degree in education leadership from Argosy University. Willis is an employee of the Dekalb County School System, where he serves as a media specialist at Martin Luther King Jr. High School.

1990s Tony Lamar Burks II ’93 has been appointed superintendent-in-residence with the National Center for Urban School Transformation at San Diego State University. His role is to further the center’s mission of helping urban school districts and their partners transform urban schools into places where all students achieve academic proficiency,

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Take a minute to drop us a note!

Help Morehouse and your classmates keep up with what’s happening in your life—both personally and professionally— by sending in your Class Notes items. We’d like to share the good news about everyone’s accomplishments. Quickest way to send Class Notes: http://giving.morehouse.edu/ NetCommunity s p r i n g

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Profiles in Leadership Alumnus Leads Institution Mentioned in President Obama’s State of Union Address Rashid F. Davis ’92 What does it say when the president of the United States mentions your institution by name as an exemplar of what’s right about education?

A lot. Rashid F. Davis ’92 said the president’s shout out during his State of the Union address on Feb. 12, 2013, was a tribute to everyone connected to Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-Tech), of which he is founding principal.

“The president’s acknowledgment of our school in his State of the Union address Tuesday night was a tribute to my incredible teachers and support staff, inside the school and out, the parents and especially the students, who are trailblazers. They are the first to try this new model that I call ’hollege,’ four years of high school plus two years of college,” said Davis.

Davis is hoping that President Obama’s endorsement will help in the establishment of more high schools with P-Tech’s model.

President Obama’s statement was: “Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration MOREHOUSE MAGAZINE

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between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.”

Said Davis: “Obama echoed my belief that the associate degree should be the new high school diploma for every public high school student. The triangulation of high school, college and industry is challenging work; it requires all involved to move forward challenging business-as-usual approaches. For example, teachers’ professional development opportunities are enhanced by industry and college professors.”

According to Davis, P-Tech

students are told on day one that they are college students.

Additionally, 74 of the school’s 227 students—or 33 percent— are currently enrolled in a college course.

Davis said the president’s message reminded him of the farewell promise he made on his high school senior yearbook page. It included the quote from fellow Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. ’48: “If I can help someone as I pass along then my living shall not be in vain.”

“President Obama’s mentioning P-Tech in his State of the Union address encouraged me to keep dreaming with my eyes open,” said Davis. n

Davis with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

evidence a love of learning, and graduate well prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, the workplace and their communities.

Nnaemeka “Meke” Egwuekwe ’94, senior architect and co-director of development at Lokion Interactive, was one of 40 successful business and community leaders selected among the 2012 honorees of Memphis Business Journal ’s Top 40 Under 40 Awards.

Marcellous L. Jones ’95 has been awarded the AMICUS Humanitarian Award by the Polish charity Friends of the World (Przyjaciele Swiata) for his individual contributions in helping the organization raise money to support poor children and Polish orphans suffering from paediatric heart disease. Jones, who resides in Paris, France, is the founder of Fashion Insider TV, which co-produces “Men’s Fashion Insider,” the world’s No. 1 television program on international men’s fashion. He also is the founder and editor-inchief at TheFashionInsider.com Magazine.

Robert Rumley ’98 was recently recognized by Georgia Trend magazine as one of a group of 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40 for helping families manage their finances. He helps families with all aspects of their financial affairs, from investing money to understanding mortgage options and applying for business loans.

classnotes 2000s Scott Hunter ’02 recently launched Sweets & Eats, a cupcake business in New Orleans.

After serving as a reporter in Albany, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C., the New Orleans native returned home in 2005, a year after Hurricane Katrina destroyed 80 percent of his hometown.

The rev. Nicholas S. richards ’05 was recently appointed executive secretary of the Foreign Mission Board for the National Baptist Conference.

Richards was selected after a yearlong search of applicants from across the country. He will assume leadership of the organization as it prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in Liberia, the location of its founding.

Marcus edwards ’07 recently accepted a position as attorney with the law firm Mayer, Smith & Roberts, LLP in New Orleans.

Prior to this, he served as a law

In order for Morehouse to remain attractive to outstanding students in this very competitive environment, we need every Morehouse Man to STAND AND BE COUNTED. There is simply no other alumni initiative as important as this Forever Morehouse Alumni Appeal.

invest today: www.morehouse.edu/forevermorehouse clerk for the First Judicial District Court of Louisiana.

Sebastian ridley-Thomas ’09 has accepted a position as an aide to California State Senator Curren D. Price Jr. Markese Bryant ’10 and John Jordan ’11 have initiated

SAVE THE DATES BaCCaLaureaTe May 18, 2013 COMMeNCeMeNT May 19, 2013 HOMeCOMiNG October 25-27, 2013 FOuNDer’S DaY CONVOCaTiON February 13, 2014 “a CaNDLe iN THe DarK” GaLa February 15, 2014

their own environmentally conscious project, Fight for Light.

The partners plan to recruit high-performing HBCU students to become change agents for environmental sustainability in low-income communities.

Marriages Charles C. Banks ’98 married the former Regina J. Thomas on April 21, 2012. The couple married at Stewart Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion Church in Fresno, Calif. They honeymooned in Las Vegas and will reside in Roxbury, Mass.

Deaths Harold B. ingram Sr. ’47 passed away Oct. 10, 2012, at age 87.

He retired after 35 years at the U.S. Postal Service, where he

served as a supervisor. Ingram was a lifetime member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a member of the American Bridge Association, American Contract Bridge League, Middle Georgia Bridge Club and Macon Duplicate Bridge Club.

Dennis Tillett ‘09, described by family and friends as “an amazing person, a true gentleman and a scholar,” died on July 4, 2012. He was fatally shot while attending an Independence Day party in Los Angeles. Tillett was a student at Dillard University in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. He transferred to Morehouse, where he majored in business. He was working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in West Hollywood, Calif., at the time of his death. n

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classnotes Hanes Walton Jr. ’63 Was Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the university of Michigan HANES WALTON JR. ’63 of Ann Arbor, Mich., died on January 7, 2013. A Phi Beta Kappa member, Walton was a distinguished, longtime University of Michigan political science professor.

Walton earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Morehouse, and continued his education by earning a master’s from Atlanta University in 1964 and a doctorate in government from Howard University in 1967.

He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Kappa Mu and Pi Sigma Alpha. The American Political Science Association, the Southern Political Science Association and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists are included among the many professional organizations in which he held membership.

He was a life member of APSA. During his career, he was a Guggenheim, Ford, Rockefeller and APSA Congressional Fellow. He was elected to serve as vice president of the American Political Science Association for the 2012-13 term.

Walton began his career at Savannah State College in

1967 as the Fuller E. Callaway Professor. In 1992, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan and taught there until his death. He specialized in American politics, race and politics, African American politics, political parties, and elections. During his tenure at Savannah State and Michigan, his research and writing produced more than 18 books and numerous articles and professional papers.

Among his books include Black politics: a Theoretical and structural analysis; Black republicans: The politics of the Black and Tans; when the marching stopped: The politics of civil rights regulatory agencies; The african american Electorate; reelection: william Jefferson clinton as a native-son presidential candidate; and the two-volume work, african american Electorate: a statistical History.

He co-authored several books with his colleagues, including american politics and the african american quest for universal freedom; political parties in american society; and letters to president obama: americans share Their Hopes and dreams with the first african american president. n llllllllllllllllllllllll

John Oscar Boone Sr. ’51 Was Massachusetts’ First Black Commissioner of Corrections JOHN OSCAR BOONE SR. ’51, a pioneer in the American correctional system and the brother of the late civil rights pioneer Joseph E. Boone, died in December 2012 at the age of 93.

Boone was the first African American appointed to head a major state prison system in the United States. He was credited with transforming the Massachusetts Prison System by pushing feverishly to ensure humane conditions for inmates and the availability of rehabilitation programs to keep the incarcerated of all races out of the system once they were released back into society.

His leadership and guidance brought forth many innovative and progressive programs that are still in use today.

After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, Boone joined the U.S. Army Air Forces. After World War II, he returned to Atlanta and earned his bachelor’s degree from Morehouse in 1951 and later earned a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University.

During his early career, he served as superintendent for the Lorton Federal Corrections Complex, community relations officer of corrections for Massachusetts, and chief of the Classification and Parole Division for the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. Boone was instrumental in the implementation of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1965 and represented the United States in Vietnam as a member of the International Prison Evaluation Team.

Devoted to educating others about the nation’s prison systems, Boone also served as director for Crime and Corrections Research at the Southern Regional Council and on the faculty of Atlanta University, Boston University, Clark University and Northeastern University. n llllllllllllllllllllllll

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Profiles in Leadership Scoutmaster Devotes 25 Years to Ministry of Scouting Walt Stephens ’64 Ministries come in many different forms. So while it may not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about leading a Boy Scouts troop, according to Walt Stephens ’64, his quarter-century service as a scoutmaster is just that.

“It’s been my ministry all these years and it always will be,” said Stephens, who is retiring after 25 years as scoutmaster at Hoosier Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

For him, scouting was much more than being prepared and building campfires.

“It was God first. Black history. Then scouting,” he said.

After learning more about the history of the church—that it is named after Harry Hoosier, the first black preacher to record a Methodist church sermon— Stephens felt it was important that the scouts learn about more black men in history.

The story of Buffalo Soldiers, African American soldiers who first fought in the Civil War, became a staple of his ministry.

Buffalo soldiers were also sent to

the Great Plains to protect Indian territory. The Native Americans had a lot of respect for the buffalo—it provided food, shelter and clothing, he explained. So when they saw African American soldiers—with similarly wooly hair and brown skin—their name for them, “Buffalo,” was actually a sign of respect.

History lessons on these remarkable soldiers attracted many boys to Stephens’ troop. In all, he has worked with approximately 1,500 boys over his scouting career. An impressive 33 of them made it all the way through the ranks to become Eagle Scouts.

Over the years, the group has circled the globe, including travel to Africa twice, Zurich, Germany and 42 U.S. states, including Alaska.

They also traversed the trade from Kentucky to Kansas, the original home of the Buffalo Soldiers.

Stephens’ call to leadership had its genesis at Morehouse, he said. He was at the train station headed to Howard University when he suddenly decided to attend Morehouse instead. He attributes the change of heart to God.

It was President Benjamin E. Mays who taught him the lesson behind the scripture of Luke 12:48, which states “to whom much is given, much is required.”

“Being a man means you are serving and giving of yourself,” he said. ”The ability to serve has been given to all of us.

Mays taught us to activate it.”

He also activated the call to service at Mead Corp., where he worked for 32 years as a traffic manager. When he first got there in 1965, he complained about the black and white water fountains.

He was asked why he cared, since he had an office job and didn’t need to worry about separate facilities.

But he did care and helped organize BEAD— Black Employees Against Discrimination. The group worked to dismantle discriminatory practices throughout the company.

His Morehouse experience and exemplars provided the courage to take up such a stance at work, as well as stirred the calling to help hundreds of black boys learn about more extraordinary black men.

“When we talk about history, we talk about Morehouse Men first,” he said.

Once a month, up to 20 of his Morehouse classmates meet at a downtown restaurant to talk, encourage and support each other. Some of them have helped him out with his scouts with everything from assisting with expeditions to giving talks to the young men who are, of course, potential Morehouse Men. “We set examples for them by our carriage and our personal conduct,” he said.

“They see Morehouse brothers cooperating.” n

–VGH

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By ANDREA BLUM

Circle An internship while a student at Morehouse catapulted Dionne Randolph among the stars— not through NASA, as the aeronautical engineering major had intended, but as “Mufasa” in Disney’s legendary Broadway production of “The Lion King.”

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TheRoadTaken ionne Randolph didn’t start life with a song on his lips and a spring in his step. But the Georgia native, who once aspired to work as a NASA engineer, found himself on a completely different path during college.

Randolph has spent a decade playing the courageous, deep-voiced father of Simba, the young lion cub who eventually assumes his father’s throne, in Disney’s musical “The Lion King.”

D

of life “I was just saying to myself the other day that that’s longer than 99 percent of the shows that ever run on Broadway,” he said.

Randolph, the son of a computer engineer, was majoring in aeronautical engineering at Morehouse when Disney came to the school looking for interns.

“I was majoring in math and science, thinking I’d work with NASA someday … but I thought the chance to intern with Disney sounded like a good opportunity to learn the business side of things,” he said.

While touring the Magic Kingdom, he was enraptured by the entertainers.

“I saw these dancers and singers and thought, ‘They do this every day—performing and changing people’s lives as a business,” Randolph said. “I thought maybe I’d better look into it.”

During his time at Disney World in Florida, “The Lion King” movie debuted in theaters and the amusement park created a puppet show based on the story.

“I was part of that very bad puppet show that opened at the kingdom,” he said. “I’ve done all variances of this show and, because of that, I have a certain love for the material.

“When I heard it was opening on Broadway, I knew I had to be in that show.”

He honed his entertainment skills while working at Disney as a radio host, parade performer, singer, actor and voiceover artist. His show business career took off when a producer heard him speaking and hired him to do a voiceover job. One of his first musical theater jobs was as the voice of the man-eating plant Audrey II in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

While he’s never had any formal vocal or dance training, working in the arts has provided an education of its own.

“I hear it and I sing it,” he said. “I’m assuming that my voice has developed. I had a friend send me a clip of me singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to a friend in high school and I cringed.”

While 10 years is a long time to stay in the same role, Randolph said the very nature of the show keeps things exciting.

“In a show like this, with 50-some people on stage, I can’t imagine anything getting boring,” he said.

“The most unique thing about Mufasa is that my main acting partner is a young kid, so that always keeps it fresh. Kids are always in

different moods—the way they deliver lines, the way they’re feeling, just little things that the audience wouldn’t notice.

“And, of course, they grow up and we get new kids.”

The universal story of “The Lion King” is what enthralls audiences year after year, according to Randolph.

“It’s a story of (someone) coming of age, of family and ancestry and pride and redemption—those are universal things we all go through,” he said.

Add to that the artistry of the intricate costumes designed by Julie Taymor that combine the dual images of human and animal forms.

“The show is a piece of art—almost like going to look at the Mona Lisa,” Randolph added. “And the show brings African music to America, Asian puppetry to America— bringing all those things together is what makes ‘The Lion King’ magic.”

Audiences seeing the show for the first time typically have strong reactions to that magic, he added.

“You can’t expect anything—that’s the most important thing to say about this show,” he said. “What inspires me is when I see nonmusical theater people in the audience in tears. You don’t see that in a lot of theater. It’s more than musical theater; it’s actually a piece of American history now. It has many, many years ahead of it.”

But for Randolph, the time to be king may be coming to an end; he plans to try his hand at film and television.

“I feel like it’s time in my life to take that chance,” he said. “If this can happen, anything can.”

He assures fans, however, that he’ll return to the pride someday.

“It’s been part of me since 1994, so I’m just going to take a step back for a second, but I’ll definitely be back,” he said. n Reprinted with permission from The NewsHerald Newspaper (Southgate, Mich.).

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Taking some of the work out of networking

Experience Alumni!

Offers Morehouse Men a new networking tool for job hunting For more information contact: Debbie Dozier Career Planning and Placement Non Business Majors Morehouse College 404-215-2703 vwyatt@morehouse.edu Douglas Cooper Career Planning and Placement Business Majors Morehouse College 404-681-2644 dcooper@morehouse.edu

The Morehouse College’s Career Planning and Placement Office is excited to unveil its latest service, designed with Morehouse College alumni in mind: Experience Alumni!

Experience required eRecruiting is the system currently used to coordinate all job postings and interview schedules for students. Now, Experience Alumni! offers a similar service designed specifically with more experienced candidates in mind.

Experience Alumni! gives Morehouse alumni a safe, secure place to look for employment opportunities by providing job postings from companies looking to recruit experienced Morehouse Men. Job opportunities from sites such as CareerBuilder, DICE and HotJobs are also posted.

Brother to brother If you know of positions within your own company that you want other alumni to know about, you can post them directly into the system yourself. It is a great system for recruiting other Morehouse Men!

Log in and check out Experience Alumni! at http://morehouse.experience.com.

Before becoming the 11th president of Morehouse College, John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ‘79 actually had already been a president at Morehouse. During the 1978-79 school year, he served as the senior class president.

These photos appeared in the 1979 edition of “The Torch,” the Morehouse student yearbook.

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Ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the No. 3 HBCU for four consecutive years Tied at No. 62 with Spelman College in U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of best liberal arts colleges Recognized as one of the nation’s top feeder schools to the Teach for America program. Since 1997, nearly 100 Morehouse graduates have taught as corps members Morehouse is the nation’s second-best producer of Peace Corps volunteers from historically black colleges and universities for 2012 . Morehouse currently has nine alumni serving in the Peace Corps across the globe Recognized by Princeton Review as one of only 133 best Southeastern colleges in 2011 Named one of The Fiske Guide to Colleges 45 Best Buy Schools for 2011 Named one the nation’s most grueling colleges by The Huffington Post in 2010

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