Date: Thu, 1885-10-15 On this date in 1885, Morris Brown College in Atlanta was founded. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America. Morris Brown College began with 107 students and nine teachers in a crude wooden structure at the corner of Boulevard and Houston Streets in Atlanta. That day marked the formal opening of the first educational institution in Georgia under sole African-American patronage. Morris Brown College was named to honor the memory of the second consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. How Morris Brown was founded is linked to a visit by a group of Clark College trustees to Big Bethel Church to interest the AME supporters in furnishing a room in their institution. In response to the proposition they presented, layman Steward Wiley said, If we can furnish a room at Clark College, why cant we build a school of our own?” These words ignited a flame in the mind of the Reverend Wesley John Gaines. On January 5, 1881, during the North Georgia Annual Conference at Big Bethel, he introduced a resolution calling for the establishment in Atlanta of an institution for the moral, spiritual, and intellectual growth of Negro boys and girls. The steps between the resolution and the opening were few and simple: The Georgia Conference was persuaded to join in the endeavor. An assembly of trustees from both conferences convened in Big Bethel Church and selected the Boulevard site as the schools home. In May of 1885, the State of Georgia granted a charter to Morris Brown College of the AME Church. its founding as a child of the church not only determined the institutions philosophical thrust, but also created a system of support which channeled its early energies toward developing programs to serve the needs of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The college at that time was largely dependent upon a denomination whose constituency was primarily unskilled, untrained, and economically unstable. In order to survive, the college had to absorb into its enrollment a large segment of underachieving students whose parents were loyal supporters of the church. What began as survival strategy of Morris Brown in 1881 became the liberation cry for Black masses and the country at large in the 1960s. At that point of higher education, that cry was heard in all colleges’ Black and White, large and small, state and private in the form of pressures to develop programs in tune with the needs of economically disadvantaged youth. For Morris Brown, however, it was a matter of doing what came naturally, better and more effectively. If there is uniqueness about Morris Brown, it is perhaps a kind of institutional flexibility, based on the assumption that a college can serve the needs of all students with the desire and the potential to earn a college degree. Morris Brown College now stands as a thriving institution, fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, with majors offered in more than 30 areas of study, including Business Sciences, Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology and Hospitality Administration. The Colleges’ current President is Dolores E. Cross, Ph.D.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:08:15 +0000
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