Washington Post: A black college closed in 1955, but its fading alumni fight to pass on a legacy

We looked at an HBCU on the brink of potential closure and today another that didn't survive. In this case, this school left behind a significant legacy as far as its history and dwindling alumni:

Storer started as a primary school in 1865, weathering racist attacks because it dared educate African Americans.

It graduated its last class in 1955, six decades ago, but Storer’s dwindling alumni return, year after year. Their descendants who never attended the school keep returning, too, even as the National Park Service, which now owns the campus, is making efforts to highlight Storer’s history.

The alumni and their descendants believe it’s their responsibility to honor those who persevered before them.

“Blacks and whites sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to make things happen,” says David Vollin, a zoning engineer with the District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Born during Reconstruction, Storer survived violence and was the site of other historic moments, including contributing to the birth of the modern civil rights era. And mostly, it created a refuge for young men and women. It’s a source of pride.

Forbes: America's Top Colleges 2013

I got wind of this because on another site it was noted that 16 HBCUs were part of this year's list. Some familiar colleges were on this list especially Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark-Atlanta. Other HBCUs I expected to be on this list weren't, but hey surely these lists don't make or break a school. Some of the other big names schools were omitted because they decided to falsify data such universities such as Emory University (also in Atlanta) and Bucknell University.

Morehouse was noted in the article: "The biggest mover-shaker was Morehouse College, the only all-male historically black college in the U.S., who jumped 235 spots to No. 285."

McArdle: Why Your Little Alma Mater May Go Extinct

If you read Instapundit you see a lot of posts about the "higher education bubble". In one recent post he found another example which explains that admissions as some schools are more selective and college enrollment has decline thanks to the job market & cost of tuition. He goes on to explain an unfortunate side effect to the changing higher education environment:

Many of the hard-hit schools seem to be historically black colleges. Here in Washington, for instance, Howard University is in the middle of a bruising board fight, thanks in part to falling enrollments. Renee Higginbotham-Brooks, vice chairwoman of the board of trustees, prophesied that "Howard will not be here in three years if we don't make some crucial decisions now." This strikes me as unlikely -- Howard was founded by a congressional grant after the Civil War, and I doubt that Congress will let it go under. But the threat is undoubtedly real for other historically black schools.

The concentration of enrollment declines among the schools that serve poor and minority communities raises some uncomfortable questions. On a positive note, this may mean that kids have access to a better class of school. On the other hand, it may mean that the schools best equipped to serve those kids fold, leaving nothing in their place. While I'm on the record as saying that we should probably send fewer kids to college, this isn't the way that I wanted to accomplish that. Rather, I wanted us to stop relying on rank credentialism, and to think harder about viable alternatives for kids who may not be academically inclined.

So to illustrate what's happening to the not so big name schools of academia the author points out an historically Black college such as Howard U.

I'm a long way from evaluating how Universities are doing, but I can only talk about myself. I don't regret getting a degree what I do regret is not being more academically inclined not just when I got to school but before I graduated from high school. My background was a long way from being a serious student.

So anyway there are a number of things to consider. What kind of students do universities want? What alternatives are available for high school seniors who don't seem inclined to go to college? What should we expect from a university other than allowing access to a university education and/or a degree?

President Obama speaks to the Morehouse College class of 2013

[VIDEO] Here is the President's address to the class of 2013 at Morehouse College. All 32 minutes and while I'm aware of how the President is portrayed by those who oppose him it's certainly great to have the leader of the free world speak at a graduation especially if it just so happens to be my own alma mater. I'm looking forward to seeing the full ceremonies as it's not the President who's important here, it's the graduates as they worked very hard to see this day come!

Alas, the past week haven't been very good to the President. We have the story regarding the IRS targeting Tea Party groups come out. Also the Benghazi is still in the news, that was where an US Ambassador was killed in Libya by insurgents.

I also found that someone threw politics into the momentousness of President Obama coming to Morehouse to speak to the graduates. Here's the title to an article from the New York Daily News: "As President Obama tells Morehouse grads he strives to be ‘a better man,’ Republican critics suggest he ought to". Although the article itself mentions some of the commencement address it says very little about Republican critics connecting some of what he said which some of the bad press he's been receiving as of late.

I do believe, however, that most of this criticism you may have seen in a variety of quotes seen on TV. Perhaps even FOX News it seems although I would have to corroborate this will actual videos. That's something I'm not prepared to do at the moment.

All the same, I still view the President coming to Morehouse as a positive. It causes me to cringe when anyone event the President himself referring to himself in the same vein as Dr. Martin Luther King because Obama is more of a political leader than Dr. King. King himself was certainly more of a religious or moral leader than Obama can ever hope to be. Although perhaps King's vision of a Black person or anyone becoming President of the United State by the content of his character but not because of the color of his skin is something that we could get out of this comparison.

In spite of his current problems, it was great to see Morehouse College get some international attention and hopefully this could mean that more people will see the primary mission of Morehouse in a good light. Especially to see the positivity of mostly Black males completing their college education!

Man sues Morehouse College after they say he never graduated

They may have done things differently in the 1980s, but when I got my degree four years ago I picked mine up the same day as commencement. If this guy got a diploma that he didn't actually earn that's terrible that at the last minute something happened where it turns out he didn't actually graduate.

A man who said he graduated from Morehouse College more than 30 years ago is suing the school because the college said he never met graduation requirements. And now Morehouse is countersuing to get him to return the diploma it gave him 33 years ago.

"They can't have it back, I earned it," Terry Boyd told Channel 2's Tom Jones outside the southwest Atlanta campus.

Boyd's attorney wonders why the school gave him the diploma if it believed he hadn't met the requirements

"How do you mail something like this to someone you're professing did not complete you're requirements for graduation?" attorney Marsha Mignott said.

This all began two years ago after Boyd applied for a job paying nearly $150,000 a year and the company checked his background.

"They said they had a problem verifying my graduation from Morehouse," Boyd explained.

Discrepancy?

Morehouse said he failed an Organic Chemistry class. His transcript shows he made a D.

Boyd said he passed the class. His attorney said it appears someone changed his grade from a C to a D.

Mignott finds it odd the college would let him take Chemistry 2 if he failed the prerequisite Chemistry 1 class. 

As a result, this is going to court and Morehouse wants their diploma back and understandably Mr. Boyd doesn't want to let it go. Let's hope Brother Boyd gets to keep his degree and is not forced to give up his diploma and as a result return to school again to re-earn his degree.

Paul gets cool reception at Howard

I think it's a great thing for Kentucky US Senator Rand Paul to visit Howard University - an HBCU. It's truly good to know an American university is truly seeking to provide students with opposite viewpoints from their own. Still why were the Bisons cool to Sen. Paul:

"I don't think he changed any minds," one student said, noting that Howard has a tradition of allowing controversial figures speak at their university in order to get a broad range of viewpoints.

"I came here because I'm a very open-minded person," Jazmine, a junior, stated. "And I'm excited about the way I hope the GOP will do its thing in the future because I think that they're on the right track," she added. However, she said she did not think that Paul was the right person to spread the GOP's message of tolerance given his questionable position on the Civil Rights Act. (An issue he tried to resolve Monday, claiming that he has "never waivered" in support of the legislation.)

Jazmine and several other students said they also took offense at the Senator's attempts to educate them on the GOP's role in the advancement of African-Americans and pander to them by quoting Toni Morrison and notable Howard alums - all of whom were black. At one point in the speech Paul asked the students if they knew that Republicans founded the NAACP. The audience was visibly taken aback and audibly expressed shock that Paul would have the audacity to ask the predominately black audience a question about black history.

"This is Howard University. We know the history of the Republican Party. We have to take political science. I should have brought my book. That's in the first chapter," Jazmine said.

The outspoken college student admitted that there was nothing Paul could have said or done to change her mind about him or the Republican Party and was unable to give an example of someone within the party she'd be more likely to listen to.

"I feel like no one has really taken a step in that direction" her friend, Evelyn, chimed in, saying she would be more likely to take into consideration a speech by someone "genuine," unlike Paul, who she said should have owned up to his previous statements about the Civil Rights Act.

Perhaps the GOP can reach out to other HBCUs around the nation as well. I'm sure many of them have their own College Republican organizations. If I may add a former RNC chairman Lee Atwater had been a member of the Howard University Board of Trustees although it was for a brief period and he resigned his position.

Via Instapundit who offers Sen. Paul points for actually showing up!

VIDEO: Spelman College acceptance reaction...

[VIDEO] I wish there were more videos of some young men getting college acceptance letters. That would be very exciting but I recognize young men may not be so willing to show their emotions on camera.

Although what we're looking at is a young lady who discovered that she had been accepted to Spelman College she's even more excited. Why is she excited because this was definitely her dream school.

You know her excitement is contagious as I see that many Spelman women are sharing this which is how I got wind of it. Well one of my Morehouse bros shared it on his wall as well. He may share in her excitement as well.

It makes me wonder what would've happened if I had allowed myself years ago to take some risks and fill out some applications when I was still a senior. My excitement came years later when I found that I had been accepted to Spelman's sister university of Morehouse College. Though thankfully my reaction didn't elicit a YouTube video as they didn't yet exist!

I'm very excited for the young people who are taking one step forward in their futures, but it's also envy. My youth didn't exactly allow me to take life by the horns! Thankfully many youth today are doing the same especially when it comes to college.

Congrats Nia on your acceptance to Spelman. I also hope that you will be able to afford going to school there. Hopefully you'll navigate the intricacies of college finance and then avoid going into serious debt! Meaning hopefully you will be good the day you walk the stage and graduate as a Spelman woman!

#ImagineMorehouse: Video coverage of forum

[VIDEO] Having subscribed to the Morehouse Nation FB page I became aware of not only photos, also this video recording embed above on the day of the on campus forum that had been advertised here. There is just over an hour worth of footage to watch. Eventually when I've watched the vid, my thoughts will be shared.

#ImagineMorehouse: An on-campus forum

Well if I had still been a student at Morehouse I probably could make this event on campus. Of course there are others who have responded to this drive for the college to be a "Thought Leader". I will have to support this in spirit, even if Imar Hutchins wrote a comment in one of my Morehouse posts encouraging me to attend. If you're on FB, then you can certainly RSVP if you would like to attend.

#ImagineMorehouse: Imagining a new Morehouse

Sorry about the redundancy in the title above. I wanted to include the hashtag so that this post could have a much larger audience. The essay that the above title refers to one written on the site Morehouse Nation (formerly known as Morehouse Old School).

I've been following the activism over the summer that not only included a letter to the Morehouse College Board of Trustees and a collective statement that has been signed by Morehouse alumni, current students, faculty, and supporters. I'd really be curious as to what the primary author of the Morehouse Nation website Imar L. Hutchins sees that he's making such a push for some changes at Morehouse. He does outline some of what he sees in the original letter to the board of trustees.

In any case, again these are my thoughts on this subject that were written earlier this summer. Perhaps I will add more in the near future. As always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

AJC: With foreclosure looming Morris Brown College on the brink

Morris Brown College has been chronicled here on this blog in the past. It looks like their struggles are getting much much worse!

For more than a decade, Morris Brown College has clung to life as it struggled academically and financially in the face of growing debt and dwindling support.

Now, one of the country's oldest black colleges, which at times boasted an enrollment of more than 3,000 student, is now down to about 50, and all but dead.

Morris Brown is facing foreclosure next month, after investors called $13 million worth of bonds tied to the college. An auction of assets, including the administration building, is scheduled for Sept. 4.

"This is heartbreaking and not only a sad day in the life of Morris Brown, but in black academia," said former Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman, a 1990 graduate of Morris Brown. "The school is needed now more than ever."

The school is planning to have a prayer vigil on Saturday, where they will 0ffer a plan to move the school forward.

While not going into specifics, Benjamin Harrison, a spokesman for the 6th District African Methodist Episcopal Church, which oversees the school, said officials will talk about reorganizing and restructuring as well as finances.

Calls to Morris Brown President Stanley J. Pritchett were not returned Wednesday, but Harrison acknowledged that while efforts are being made to find money to settle the debt the going is tough.

"There is the need to raise millions of dollars to counteract that deficit," Harrison said. "But if that money is not raised, the school is in jeopardy."

Here's hoping Morris Brown gets their funds to stave off foreclosure!

The Board of Trustees response to the #MorehouseLetter

Well actually the response of Morehouse College Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Davidson to attorney Imar Hutchins to his original letter and his collective statement. Mr. Hutchins isn't going to get his audience with the Trustees, but at least the concerns of the Morehouse community are being heard. Also check out Hutchins response to Davidson's letter. Perhaps the talk needs to only continue!

Previous posts

• #MorehouseLetter: Morehouse in a downward trajectory?
• Remember that #MorehouseLetter...

Remember that #MorehouseLetter...

That I posted on June 20th. Now the author of that letter wants Morehouse alumni, students, and other supporters to add their names to a collective statement to be sent to the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. 134 names totals have signed onto this letter so far! Sooner or later my name will be on it!

Ten Milwaukee-area Students Become Men of Morehouse Through New Milwaukee Scholarship Program

I took this pic of Graves Hall in 2007

This story is great but it would be nice to see this out of all the major urban areas in the nation. Whether Milwaukee, Detroit, NYC, Boston, LA, Memphis, Chicago, etc. Well especially Chicago!

Ten Wisconsin students sat at a table, wearing maroon and white ties last week during “Signing Day ” and put to ink scholarship papers to attend Morehouse College. They are the first group of what school officials say will become a new pipeline of black males from the Milwaukee area to Morehouse.

Funded by Wisconsin and national donors, the young men will attend Morehouse this fall on four-year scholarships totaling more than $800,000. They become the largest-ever group of Wisconsin students to come to Morehouse.

“We’re creating a pathway for student success that runs through our schools and one of the nation’s most renowned institutions of higher education,” said Gregory Thornton, superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools. “It’s an honor to partner with Morehouse.”

The key:

The scholarship donors – BMO Harris Bank; the Hans Helmerich Foundation; Charles and Cheryl Harvey; the Johnson Controls Foundation; Dale E. Jones; Mr. and Mrs. Ulice Payne; Ildy and Skip Poliner; United Negro College Fund; Wisconsin Energy Foundation; and Scott Voynich – were all on hand for the Signing Day event at Milwaukee’s Rufus King International School. 

I usually think in terms of only scholarships although in this case it seems the Milwaukee Public School were involved with this as much as Morehouse itself.

Wait I missed this part:

The Milwaukee scholarships are part of a pilot program in which Morehouse plans a nationwide push to recruit students from cities with low high-school graduation rates for young black men. 

Alright! It just goes to my idea about Morehouse or other HBCU's future goals should be to provide access to higher education. Just find a niche group who need an extra push, in this case young men.

#MorehouseLetter: Morehouse in a downward trajectory?

This letter by Morehouse College alum Imar L. Hutchison addresses the college's board of trustees and the presidential search committee. He wishes for Morehouse to address those issues that are affecting the college and how the school risks irrelevancy!

I find it somewhat troubling that there are Morehouse Men who aren't sure if they want to send their sons to their own alma mater. There are certainly reasons for that, reasons that are explored in this letter. I don't yet have children so it's not necessarily an issue for me. Still, when I do have a son my hope is that he would consider Morehouse although he should have a choice in where he goes to university.

Some of these issues outlined in this letter have been discussed at some level by some friends of mine while we were undergrads. One gent was concerned about where the money is going at Morehouse. Another gent pretty much declared Morehouse a business school. In class years ago, my religion class discussed the issue of homosexuality at the college. Also the issue of rigor had been brought up at a Crown Forum by an esteemed alumni and was met with some boos.

As stated these issues do concern me. Here on this blog, I've explored the issue of whether or not HBCUs should continue to exist. Not sure I've ever provided an answer although my answer would be to say yes. My explanation is to state that HBCUs historically were created to provide Blacks access to higher education during those periods of time where they would have had a very tough time getting admitted to an American university. That mission should still be important although it may transcend ethnicities.

Morehouse is primarily known as the university of Dr. Martin Luther King. He's not the college's only prominent graduate and in the future I would expect that someone will reach his stature! Dr. King was not a business major and it's unfortunate that the college is being referred to as a business school.

Another thing I've explored on this blog was the issues of the political science department. My last year at Morehouse before I graduated saw the fallout from the departures of three professors. I learned for the first time then that the pol. sci. department was the 2nd largest department at the college. I also learned during that period that many of those students had simply moved from the business department to major in political science. It may well underscore the point of this letter that the best and brightest students were steered towards the business department!

OK, so perhaps we have another question to ask about Morehouse. Should the college be a school that helps to nurture leaders in many fields? Not only leaders in the business world but also in other fields and careers such as politics, science, medicine, academia, or even the church?

Mr. Hutchison does mention social justice although that's not a clear concept to me I understand where he's going. Social justice is about character more than anything a concern about other people and their welfare. Nothing says our primary goal is about chasing the almighty dollar. Should the idea of character education be a defining characteristic of Morehouse?

My hope is that the leadership at Morehouse College will grant Mr. Hutchison an audience and hopefully they will take some of his points under consideration. Not only that they seek to implement those changes but also choose the right people to execute them. Time will tell!

An unforunate outcome but a potential idea...

On April 13th, I went to a Local School Council meeting for my old high school (GO HARLAN FALCONS!!!!). Just before the meeting two of the council members had a talk about a student. One of them was a parent of the student and the other I believe was a counselor. This counselor had approached me about participating in a career day but currently I still have no "Morehouse man job".

The gist of the convo is that the young lady wanted to go to Spelman College. It seems as if her heart was set for Spelman but then came the financial aid award from them. And then disappointment set in!

The award from what I got from the convo was heavy on loans and unless I'm mistaken I heard nothing about grants. Even with that in mind they still had to come up with some cash to finish off the balance. It's safe to say momma wasn't going for Spelman College this trip and she referred to this award as a "racket".

The young girl was upset but after some reflection decided to focus her energies onto Howard University. Apparently Howard had offered her a better deal with a scholarship and let me not be dismissive of Howard it's still a great school. But this story made me wish that well I had some contacts at Spelman to help this young lady out a bit.

Also this leads to other questions. I would like to be this bold but without getting into anyone's business although I already did that by tuning into the conversation.

The counselor seems to have predicted that Spelman wasn't going to give this young lady any money. It makes me wonder how she decided that. The mother noted that the counselor was beaming when she heard the young lady was considering Howard University. Though perhaps beaming as if she knew that this was going to happen.

During my time at Morehouse College I had to learn the financial aid game. I never turned in applications on time but I knew the "high-touch" paying a visit to financial aid advisers could make a different. Well at least in the time before my return to Morehouse after one disastrous semester.

It's understandable that momma may not have wanted to go for it looking at the award. Of course if one was determined to go to the school of their choice there is a way. Of course, that might mean trying to eke out more money so that they can go to school figuring out how to pay for it after a year is entirely another. Then again I wasn't a senior in high school like this young lady is currently trying to figure this out. Though it does make me wonder what is the difference between Spelman College and Howard University. In fact this gives me an interesting idea.

It does give me one idea that's been in my head for quite a while. If there was one thing I do wish I could do for students at Harlan High School it would be to help provide scholarships so that they can attend the university of their choice. Although if I could my goal would be to start small and hopefully help some young Harlanite who wanted to go to Morehouse get a decent scholarship to be able to attend that prestigious Atlanta, Georgia institution. That may also mean that Morehouse needs to add one more place to recruit!

Went to see the Morehouse Glee Club last night

Glee Club and Morehouse Alumni sing college hymn on stage

It hits me that 2011 and 2012 marks a milestone in my own personal history with Morehouse College. In 2001, I was accepted to Morehouse for the first time and Spring 2002 marked my first semester there. Back then I was talking a good game about supporting Morehouse, however, I have yet to put my money where my mouth is.

Anyway it's been 10 years since my acceptance and my first semester there. And of course after dropping out for a year and half due to money and it took me some time to finally graduate from Morehouse. I can't believe that it's been that long already. Where has the time gone?

Last night, I saw current Men of Morehouse perform at the Harris Theater. The Morehouse Glee Club came to Chicago and performed and impressed a lot of people who never got to see the Glee Club perform. This is the first concert I've been to involving the Glee Club. They often performed at college functions such as crown forums or even baccalaureate and commencement. Sometimes they perform at events such as that for the King Memorial.

Believe it or not, I hadn't planned on going. My mother just decided this was something she wanted to do and she had tickets through her job so we went last night. It was a great performance and say what you will about them the Glee Club has talent.

Here's an example of what they perform. They performed this very song last night in fact, "Betelehemu" [VIDEO]

This has encouraged my mother to support schools like Morehouse College. She may give a donation in the future and I would also be interested as well although I've yet to find a "Morehouse Man job". Also I have other goals as a function of being a Morehouse Man that I think would be valuable but I'll save that for another post.

Stuff Spelmanites Say Part 2

[VIDEO] Basically I presented part 1 to you, so here's part two. A satire of the adventures of the women of Spelman College. Hopefully this will give you a good laugh, the theme is basically leading up to graduation!

Stuff Spelmanites say...

[VIDEO] For those of you who've attended an HBCU (such as Spelman College) you may very well enjoy this and know what they are referring to. For those of you who haven't had this experience it's still good for a laugh. I've decided it's worth sharing to anyone who reads this blog. Enjoy!