By Mary F. Walton, Contributing Writer
It was January 5, 1881, during the North Georgia Annual Conference at Big Bethel; Reverend Wesley John Gaines 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 the endeavor. Trustees from both conferences convened at Big Bethel Church and selected a crude wooden structure at the corner of Boulevard and Houston Streets in Atlanta, Georgia, as the school’s home. In May 1885, the State of Georgia granted Morris Brown College of the African Methodist Episcopal Church a charter.
On October 15, 1885, just 20 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, 107 students and nine teachers walked into Morris Brown College, marking the opening of the first educational institution in Georgia under African-American patronage. Morris Brown College honors the memory of the second consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Bishop Morris Brown.
Morris Brown College was originally founded as a private, coeducational, liberal arts college engaged in teaching, humanities, and public service, with a special focus on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, and technology. The College is proud of its tradition of serving the educational needs of the best and brightest young minds while simultaneously providing educational support to students who might not otherwise receive the opportunity to compete at the college level. Students fitting the latter are given the tools they need to increase their potential for earning a college degree. In the years since its founding in 1881, administrations have tried to maintain a competitive, nurturing space where African American students can gain skills needed to be productive, conscious citizens of society. Faced with mounting debt, crumbling infrastructure, and loss of accreditation in 2002, the once-flourishing college lost most of its students. The college never closed but held on by a thread.
Mr. Kevin James was named interim president in early 2019 and, with the efforts of the university’s administration, worked toward accreditation. On April 13, 2019, Morris Brown College officially received accreditation candidacy by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS), a Virginia-based accreditation agency recognized by the United States Department of Education. Mr. James became the President of Morris Brown College in May 2020. Students will resume in-person classes in Fall 2022. Incoming students will be among the first to experience the college’s new academic programs, such as hospitality management, global management, applied leadership, and a first-of-its-kind esports performance program. Morris Brown will be the only school in George to offer an esports major.
Morris Brown College received $100,000 from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. as a seed for an endowment for scholarships and other needs to help the school’s sustainability. Dr. Glenda Glover, Alpha Kappa Alpha International President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our gift to this historic institution will be used to assist President Kevin James with scholarships, academic support, and programmatic activities that we believe will increase the sustainability of Morris Brown for years to come,”
Morris Brown College is guided by its motto: “God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit our Comforter, Humankind our Family.”
