Morehouse College Photographs

Morehouse College, founded in 1867, is a private, Liberal Arts, all male historically Black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, Morehouse College is one of four colleges in the Atlanta University Center that also includes Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

Morehouse College was founded by Reverend William Jefferson White in 1867, in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church and was known as The Augusta Theological Institute, in Augusta Georgia. Reverend Joseph T. Robert was appointed as the College's first president from 1871-1884. After an invitation by the Reverend Frank Quarles in 1879, the College relocated to the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, and changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary. In 1885, the college named its second president, Samuel Graves (1885-1890). Shortly after, in 1890, the College relocated once more to its present home in the West End community of Atlanta, Georgia. In 1897, under its third president, Dr. George Sale (1890-1906) the college changed its name to Atlanta Baptist College. In 1906 President Sale was succeeded by President John Hope, the first African American President of the college. A native of Augusta, Hope was a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island and had been a professor at Atlanta Baptist College since 1898. During his tenure, the college expanded its course offerings, increased the number of facilities, and earned a reputation for academic excellence.

In 1913 after the death of founder Reverend White, the college changed its name one last time to Morehouse College, to honor Henry L. Morehouse the corresponding secretary of the Northern Baptist Home Mission Society.

In 1940, Benjamin Mays became the school's sixth president (1940-1967). During his twenty-seven-year tenure Mays enhanced the college's academic reputation and encouraged students to question the established system of segregation that dominated the South during this time and to commit themselves to uplifting their race.

Today, Morehouse continues to build on its commitment to African American education. Its long list of alumni includes, Martin Luther King, Jr. Julian Bond, actor Samuel L. Jackson, filmmaker Spike Lee, Olympic gold medal winner Edwin Moses, and the first black mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson.