Morehouse College history

In 1879, the institute moved to Atlanta and changed its name to the Atlanta Baptist Seminary.

Graves Hall, built in 1889 under the leadership of the second president, George Sale, was the first building built on the campus of Morehouse College.

In 1890, George Sale became the seminary's third president.

In 1897 the school was renamed Atlanta Baptist College.

Established in 1898, the Athenaeum was a student publication that projected thoughts and opinions of both Morehouse and Spelman students.

In 1906 Atlanta Baptist College was renamed Morehouse College in honor of Henry Lyman Morehouse, a supporter of the school and a member of the Atlanta Baptist Home Mission Society.

In 1913, while under the leadership of the college’s first African American president, John Hope, the school’s name changed to Morehouse College.

In 1929, Hope was unanimously chosen to lead the newly affiliated university system comprised of Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Atlanta University.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had given a summer commencement address at the University of Georgia in 1938.

Benjamin Mays became president in 1940.

Most notably, Martin Luther King Jr. (class of 1948) remembered Mays as his “spiritual mentor,” and “intellectual father.”

Spike Lee, byname of Shelton Jackson Lee, (born March 20, 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, United States), American filmmaker known for his uncompromising provocative approach to controversial subject matter.

In 1967, Hugh M. Gloster became the seventh president.

The affiliated Morehouse School of Medicine opened in 1975.

The Morehouse School of Medicine was founded as part of the college in 1978 and became independent three years later.

son of Bill Lee son of Bill Lee son of Jacquelyn Shelton Lee son of Jacquelyn Shelton Lee married to Tonya Lewis Lee (1993–present) married to Tonya Lewis Lee (1993–present) father of Satchel Lee (b.

1994) father of Jackson Lee (b.

The outspoken Lee cited what he perceived as Hollywood’s antiblack bias, noting that, while Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and his poignant documentary 4 Little Girls (1997)—about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing—all received Academy Award nominations, he was repeatedly denied an Oscar win.

In 2007, Morehouse graduated 540 men, one of the largest classes in its history.

On May 16, 2008, Joshua Packwood became the first white valedictorian to graduate in the school's 141-year history.

A follow-up series, If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise, aired in 2010.

In November 2012, alumnus John Silvanus Wilson was announced as the institution's 11th president.

In May 2013, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president in three-quarters of a century to deliver a commencement address in Georgia when he took part in Morehouse College's 129th Commencement ceremony.

In 2017 Lee rebooted his debut hit, She’s Gotta Have It, as a Netflix series.

In January 2018, David A. Thomas took office as the college's 12th president.

In May 2019, Robert F. Smith who received an honorary degree at Morehouse College's 135th commencement ceremony, promised to pay the educational loan debt for every spring 2019 graduate which totaled about $34 million.

In July 2020, Morehouse received a $20 million donation from MacKenzie Scott.

In early February 2021, Morehouse announced its online degree completion program for adult learners.