Newspaper Page Text
1898
THE ORGAN OF STUDENT EXPRESSION
1978
MAROON
Vol. 79, No. 7 Morehouse College Atlanta, Georgia
February 9, 1978
Morehouse Survives 111 th Year
Morehouse Plans
Gala Founder's Day
by Charles E. Mapson
In what may be known as
the greatest moment in the his
tory of Morehouse College, the
entire campus will observe a
weekend of Founder’s Day ac
tivities.
Although this is the 111th
Founder’s Day, the historical
feature involves the dedication
of the multimillion dollar com
pound administration, read
ing room and Chapel.
The Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapel is completed with the
exception of the $200,000 pipe
organ, the Statue of Dr. King,
and the Hall of Fame Busts. In
cluded in the new bvilding are
2,501 seats, mostly donated by
alumni and former students of
Morehouse.
The huge structure will be
able to hold the entire student
body of Morehouse as well as
about 1,000 more. The new
chapel will also serve as the
best auditorium in the Atlanta
University Center for concerts
and lectures, which Morehobse
has not seen lately due to lack
of a suitable place.
The Hugh M. Gloster Hall,
reading room and ad
ministration building will
house all the administrative
offices now in Sale and
Harkness Halls.
The weekend of festivities
will climax with the dedication
of the two new buildings at 3
p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19. The
speaker for that occasion will
be the Honorable Andrew
Young, Ambassador to the
United Nations,
article five coming to the
ultimate
by Charles E. Mapson
It all started in 1866 when
Richard Coulter, a former
slave brought a letter to
Augusta, Georgia from
Washington, D.C. authorizing
him to organize a school.
Coulter turned the task over to
William Jefferson White.
William Jefferson White was
indeed an extraordinary man.
Born of an Indian mother and
a white father, White chose to
be Black and identified with
the Black people. In 1867, he
took the task that Coulter had
left him with, and in February
began the Augusta Institute in
the basement of the
Springfield Baptist Church.
Dr. Joseph Robert became
the first president in 1871. In
1879 the Augusta Institute
moved to Atlanta, the newly
made seat of Georgia
government, and was renamed
the Atlanta Baptist Seminary.
According to A Candle in
the Dark, b-y Dr. Edward
Allen Jones, a must for all
Morehouse students (available
in the Reading Room), the
school began in Atlanta in the
basement of the Friendship
Baptist Church at that time
pastored by Rev. Frank
Quarles.
Upon the death of Dr. Robert
and after the interim
presidency of Professor David
Foster Estes, 'Dr. Samuel
Graves became the second
president of the school in 1885.
Four years later the landmark
building Graves Hall was
erected.
In 1897 the name of the
school was changed again to
the Atlanta Baptist College.
Three years later the third
president of the school was
elected. The new president was
George Sale who served for
only six years before he
resigned. His successor was
the famous John Hope.
Dr. Hope served this college
well and employed some of the
best minds that this school has
ever known. Benjamin
Brawley, J. Saunders Redding
and Kemper Harreld were only
a few of the outstanding
teachers in the Hope ad
ministration.
Dr. Hope in 1913 was
president when the college
underwent its final name
change. After the corres
ponding secretary of the
American Baptist Home Mis
sion Society, Atlanta Baptist
College was named Morehouse
College. Henry Lyman
Morehouse remains one of the
names in the history of
Morehouse College.
In 1930, after 24 years of
service, John Hope resigned
the presidency of Morehouse
and for seven years, until his
illness, Dr. Samuel Howard
Archer, Sr. was president of
Morehouse College. Dr.
Charles DuBois Hubert served
as acting president for three
years until a new president
was found.
The new president became
the man who has served in
that position longer than any
other man. He was a man who
earned the love, respect, ad
miration and kindness of
every Morehouse Man, Dr.
Benjamin Elijah Mays. Dr.
Mays became the sixth
president of Morehouse on faithfully and wholeheartedly
July 1, 1940. for eleven years. Admist tie
On July 1, 1967 Hugh M. r i c h history that this
Gloster became the seventh institution has, it is of little
president of Morehouse- wonder why Morehouse is so
College. He has served great.