Morris Brown College (MBC) is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
historically black
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...
in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. Founded January 5, 1881, Morris Brown is the first educational institution in Georgia to be owned and operated entirely by African Americans.
History
Establishment
The Morris Brown Colored College (its original name) was founded on January 5, 1881, by African Americans affiliated with the
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...
, the first independent black denomination in the United States. It was named to honor the denomination's second bishop,
Morris Brown, originally from
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
.
After the end of the American Civil war, the AME Church sent numerous missionaries to the South to found new churches. They planted many new AME congregations in Georgia and other states, where hundreds of thousands of
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...
joined this independent black denomination.
On January 5, 1881, the North Georgia Annual Conference of the AME Church passed a resolution to establish an educational institution in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
for the moral, spiritual, and intellectual growth of Negro boys and girls. The school chartered and opened October 15, 1885, with 107 students and nine teachers. Morris Brown was the first educational institution in Georgia to be owned and operated entirely by African Americans. By 1898 the school had 14 faculty, 422 students, and 18 graduates. For more than a century, the college enrolled many students from poor backgrounds, large numbers of whom returned to their hometowns as teachers, as education was a mission of high priority.
Fountain Hall
Fountain Hall, formerly Fairchild Hall and Stone Hall, is a historic academic building on the grounds of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. Built in 1882, it is the oldest surviving building originally associated with Atlanta University - ...
, originally known as Stone Hall when occupied by
Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Founde ...
, was completed in 1882. After Atlanta University consolidated its facilities, it leased the building to Morris Brown College, which renamed it as Fountain Hall. It is closely associated with the history of Morris Brown College and has been designated as a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
Morris Brown College's
Herndon Stadium
Alonzo Herndon Stadium, named for Alonzo Herndon, is an abandoned 15,011-seat stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the only two-sided stadium in the Atlanta University Center. It is one block ov ...
was the site of the
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
competitions during the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
. The stadium is designed to seat 15,000 spectators.
In 1950, the President of
Georgia Tech and civil rights lecturer
Blake R Van Leer
Blake Ragsdale Van Leer (August 16, 1893 – January 23, 1956) was an engineer and university professor who served as the fifth president of Georgia Institute of Technology from 1944 until his death in 1956.
Early life and education
Van Leer was ...
delivered the commence address. Van Leer would later be involved in a local battle against a racist Governor at the time.
Embezzlement prosecution
By the early 2000s, eighty percent of the school's 2,500 students received financial aid from the
federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
, totaling $8 million annually. Under the federal government's
grant-in-aid, a college student financial aid program, accredited universities requested the Department of Education to reimburse grants in aid based on the enrollment of financially qualified students for each semester/quarter hour.
The university's registrar and accountable fiscal officer are required to jointly certify the students enrolled as full and/or part-time graduate or undergraduate students. The university also has to annually certify to its accreditation body that it is conducting an academic semester (or quarter) that the accreditor approved for overall semester/quarter length, and actual number of in-classroom clock-hours per semester (or quarter) hour to be awarded, in each classroom course offered.
A federal criminal case was filed against the former president,
Dolores Cross
Dolores Cross is an educator and university administrator who became the first female president of Chicago State University (1990) and Morris Brown College (MBC) (1998–2002). In 2006, she pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement in connectio ...
, and the financial aid director (the accountable fiscal officer), Parvesh Singh, alleging that they had, on behalf of the university, submitted to the Department of Education (the grant administrator) false declarations of enrollment of students for certain semesters. The charges said that in the specified semesters, the students identified in the declarations had not, in fact, been enrolled. Since the
grant-in-aid program's structure required the federal funds received to be applied to each individual enrolled student's account, the two school officers committed their second offense of
embezzlement
Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
when they unlawfully applied these funds directly to ineligible college costs, such as salaries for personal staff, instead of applying the funds to offset individual students' enrollment expenses.
In 2002, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...
revoked the college's
accreditation because of its financial problems. Cross and Singh were charged in December 2004 in a 34-count
indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...
that accused them of
defrauding the university, the
U.S. Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
, and hundreds of students. The pair, who had first worked together at a college in Chicago, Illinois, were convicted of using the names of hundreds of students, ex-students, and people who were never enrolled in order to obtain financial aid funds that they applied for other purposes.
During the time Cross held the college presidency, from November 1998 through February 2002, Singh obtained about 1,800 payments from federally insured loans and
Pell grants for these students, who had no idea they would be responsible for paying off the loans, the indictment said.
Singh pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement. Singh, 64, was sentenced to five years of probation and 18 months of home confinement.
At the time of the 2004 indictment, Cross was teaching at
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...
in Chicago.
On May 1, 2006, Cross
pleaded guilty to fraud by embezzlement.
She agreed to pay $11,000 to the Department of Education in restitution.
On January 3, 2007, Cross was sentenced to five years of probation and one year of home confinement for the fraud. Cross, 70 years old, suffers from
sleep apnea and has had a series of small
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
s, factors the judge took into consideration. An additional factor the judge considered for each person was that they did not use the embezzled funds for personal profit, but to prop up the school's poor finances.
The initial indictment said Cross had used the funds to finance personal trips for herself, her family, and friends.
The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, said at the sentencing: "When the defendants arrived at Morris Brown, the college was already in serious financial condition. Thereafter, these defendants misappropriated ... money in fairly complicated ways in what appears to have been a misguided and ultimately criminal attempt to keep Morris Brown afloat."
[ ]
Rebuilding
At its peak before accreditation issues, the college had approximately 2,500 students enrolled.
In 2004, Dr. Samuel D. Jolley, who had been the school's president from 1993 to 1997, agreed to return to the presidency to help the college's attempts to recover. The school hoped to have 107 students in fall 2006, the same number when the school opened in 1881, but failed to meet that goal.
Tuition in the fall semester of 2006 was $3,500, but without accreditation, students cannot obtain federal or state financial aid for their tuition and other school expenses.
By February 2007, MBC had 54 students in two degree programs, supported by 7 faculty and staff employees.
After the sentencing of two former administrators, the chair of the college's board of trustees, Bishop William Phillips DeVeaux, issued a press release stating the college would move forward and that "This sad chapter in the college's history is now closed."
In addition to civil lawsuits filed by former and current students, Morris Brown faced a civil suit for defaulting on a $13 million property bond, a case that could have led to foreclosure on some of the college's most historic buildings, including its administration building. The complaint asked for $10.7 million in principal owed on the loan agreement, $1.5 million in interest, and a per diem of $2,100 for each day Morris Brown does not pay.
In December 2008, the City of Atlanta disconnected water service to the college because of an overdue water bill.
The debt was paid and the service restored.
Radio personality
Tom Joyner made several offers to buy the troubled college from 2002 through 2004, during the worst of the accreditation and fraud crises. In 2003, his charitable foundation gave the school $1 million to assist with its immediate needs.
The school faced foreclosure in September 2012.
The college filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
in an attempt to prevent foreclosure and sale of the school at auction.
In June 2013, Morris Brown's board of trustees rejected a $9.7 million offer from the city of Atlanta. However, negotiations continued and mid-year in 2014 Morris Brown reached an agreement with Invest Atlanta, Atlanta's economic development agency. The offer eliminated the school's $35 million debt by purchasing the 37 acres on which the college sits, paying the school's creditors, and paying $480,000 in back pay owed to professors and staff. The college will be able to retain use of several historic buildings for educational purposes. The city's administration wishes to revitalize the area around Morris Brown; the site of the new
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...
stadium is just east of the campus. Mayor
Kasim Reed said that the city has no interest in operating the school, and that it would be illegal for them to do so.
![2019-05-15 Morris Brown College UNCF Statue 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/2019-05-15_Morris_Brown_College_UNCF_Statue_2.jpg)
Several of Morris Brown's buildings are in an extreme state of disrepair and have been heavily damaged, including
Herndon Stadium
Alonzo Herndon Stadium, named for Alonzo Herndon, is an abandoned 15,011-seat stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the only two-sided stadium in the Atlanta University Center. It is one block ov ...
, the Middleton Twin Towers dorm, Gaines Hall, and Furber Cottage. Gaines Hall was heavily damaged by a two-alarm fire in August 2015. Mayor Reed indicated in August 2015 that he would like to see the city help preserve the building.
As of fall 2018, the college had less than 50 students enrolled. The college received approximately 2,000 applications but interest dropped significantly once applicants were notified they can not receive financial aid because the college was not accredited.
In 2019, Morris Brown College was approved as an institute of higher learning by the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC). The approval is a notable step towards regaining full accreditation. In 2021, the college became beneficiaries of a $30 million investment that partners them with
Hilton
Hilton or Hylton may refer to:
Companies
* Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc., a global hospitality company based in the United States that owns several hotel chains and subsidiary companies containing the Hilton name
** Hilton Hotels & Resorts, fla ...
to establish a new hotel on campus and reestablish a hospitality management degree program to train Brownites and its application for accreditation candidacy through the
Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools
The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) is a U.S. based institutional accreditation organization that focuses on Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries seeking collegiate accreditation in the United Sta ...
(TRACS) was approved, allowing the college to once again receive federal financial aid and other funds.
Academics
Morris Brown offers baccalaureate degrees in management, entrepreneurship, and technology (for traditional students) and Organizational Management and Leadership (for Adult Degree matriculants).
Accreditation
Morris Brown was
unaccredited
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
from 2003 to 2022.
Until 2003, Morris Brown was accredited by a regional accreditor, the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Morris Brown was more than $23 million in debt and was on probation in 2001 with SACS for shoddy bookkeeping and a shortage of professors with advanced degrees. In December 2002, SACS revoked Morris Brown's accreditation. Almost eight years later, the college settled its nearly $10 million debt with the Department of Education.
In March 2019, the college's leaders announced that the college was applying for accreditation through the
Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools
The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) is a U.S. based institutional accreditation organization that focuses on Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries seeking collegiate accreditation in the United Sta ...
(TRACS) within 12 to 18 months. The college's application for candidacy was accepted by TRACS in early 2021, enabling the college to once again receive federal financial aid and other funding.
In April 2022, Morris Brown College was granted full accreditation in a unanimous vote from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Morris Brown College is the only college in the nation to regain full accreditation and funding after 20 years without it.
Athletics
In the early 2000s, the college briefly had an independent
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
athletics program. Prior to the Division I transition, the college was a founding and active member of the NCAA Division II
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference between 1913 and 2000.
The Morris Brown Wolverines football program played at
Herndon Stadium
Alonzo Herndon Stadium, named for Alonzo Herndon, is an abandoned 15,011-seat stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the only two-sided stadium in the Atlanta University Center. It is one block ov ...
on campus until the athletic program was discontinued in 2003. Despite an inactive athletics program, Morris Brown has continued its homecoming tradition every fall semester on campus.
The Marching Wolverines
Morris Brown College was well known for its popular and sizable marching band program, "The Marching Wolverines", and danceline "Bubblin Brown Sugar." Both were strongly featured in the 2002 box office hit ''
Drumline'' and invited to perform at the first
Honda Battle of the Bands The Honda Battle of the Bands (sometimes abbreviated The Honda or HBOB) is an annual marching band exhibition in the United States which features performances by bands from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Sponsored by the Ameri ...
event in 2003. In 2006, the rappers
OutKast released a song named "
Morris Brown" that featured the marching band.
Due to accreditation problems at the college in the 2000s, the band program eventually discontinued. There have been conversations by Morris Brown's leadership to bring back the marching band program and athletics now the school is accredited again.
Notable alumni
*
Hosea Williams – civil rights activist
*
Nene Leakes – American television personality and entrepreneur
*
Jean Carn – jazz and pop singer
*
Kimberly Alexander – member of the
Georgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...
*
Carl Wayne Gilliard – member of the
Georgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...
*
Carrie Thomas Jordan – educator
*
James Alan McPherson
James Alan McPherson (September 16, 1943 – July 27, 2016) was an American essayist and short-story writer. He was the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was included among the first group of artists who re ...
– Historian and
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning author
*
Billy Nicks – former head football coach of Morris Brown and
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learnin ...
*
Sommore
Sommore (born Lori Ann Rambough; May 15, 1966) is an American comedian and actress. Known as the "Diva of Contemporary Comedy," her comedic style features a biting sarcasm and frank discussions about money, sex, and equality between the sexes. She ...
– comedian and member of the
Queens of Comedy
*
Charles W. Chappelle Charles Ward Chappelle (July 11, 1872 – February 28, 1941)"Charles Chappelle Deeply Mourned", ''The Pittsburgh Courier'' (City Edition, Pittsburgh, PA), March 1, 1941, p. 2. was an early 1900s African-American aviation pioneer and medal winner ...
– attended late 1880s; Aviation pioneer, international businessman, president of the African-American Union, electrical engineer and architect/construction
*
Donzella James
Donzella J. James (born May 3, 1948) is an American politician. She is a member of the Georgia State Senate from the 35th District, serving since 2009. Senator James serves as the Chairwoman of Interstate Competition and is also a member of the ...
– former member of the
Georgia State Senate
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Legal provisions
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georgia ...
*Beverly Harvard – first black female police chief of
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
*
George Atkinson – former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
defensive back for the Oakland Raiders
*
Solomon Brannan
Solomon Embra Brannan (born September 5, 1942) is a former American football defensive back who played three seasons in the American Football League (AFL) with the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets. He played college football at Morris Bro ...
– former AFL defensive back for the Kansas Chiefs and New York Jets
*
Ezell Brown
Ezell Brown, (born May 22, 1970) is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and chairman of Education Online Services Corporation.
He has over 20 years' experience in the analysis, development, and deployment of full servi ...
– Educational entrepreneur, founder of Education Online Services Corporation
*
Donte Curry – former NFL linebacker for Carolina Panthers and Detroit Lions
*
Tommy Hart
Tommy Lee Hart (born November 7, 1944) is a former American football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. He played college football Morris Brown College.
Early y ...
– former NFL defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers
*
Alfred Jenkins
Alfred Donnell Jenkins (born January 25, 1952) is a former professional American football wide receiver who played for the Birmingham Americans in 1974 and nine seasons for the Atlanta Falcons from 1975 through 1983. Jenkins was selected to the ...
– former NFL and WFL wide receiver Atlanta Falcons 1975–1983 and Birmingham Americans 1974
*
Ezra Johnson
Ezra Ray Johnson (born October 2, 1955) is a retired American football defensive end who played for the Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Oilers in a 15-year career that lasted from 1977 to 1991 in the National Football League (NF ...
– former NFL defensive end for the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts
*
Greg Grant – former NBA player
*
Howard Simon Mwikuta
Howard Simon Mwikuta (20 June 1941 – 26 February 1988) was a Zambian footballer and coach who featured in the first Zambian national team at independence in October 1964. He was named Zambian captain in 1966 and at the end of the season was v ...
– former kicker for the Dallas Cowboys and the first native-born African to play in the NFL
*Teck Holmes – Castmate on MTV's ''
The Real World: Hawaii'', actor, and TV personality
References
External links
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{{authority control
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Historically black universities and colleges in the United States
Universities and colleges affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church
Private universities and colleges in Georgia (U.S. state)
Unaccredited institutions of higher learning in the United States
Educational institutions established in 1881
Universities and colleges in Atlanta
Old Fourth Ward
1881 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
English Avenue and Vine City