Rate this HBCU special edition: Morris Brown College

[DrBanneker]

This is a special edition of Rate this HBCU covering the newly re-accredited Morris Brown College. There will not be a traditional poll since initial progress is still being made but rather an opinion poll about where you think MBC's future lies.

Morris Brown was the first Black founded and run higher education institute in Georgia founded in 1881 by the AME Church. It is named for the second bishop of the AME, Morris Brown. It joined the Atlanta University Center in 1957 and remained until it dropped out in 2002 with its loss of accreditation.

In contrast to the elite schools of Morehouse and Spelman, Morris Brown traditionally was focused on providing higher education to those of poorer and more challenged backgrounds. At its peak its enrollment rivaled those institutions averaging around 1,500 undergraduate students. However, a series of catastrophes brought the school to its knees.

It was already in trouble in the late 90s when the new president Dolores Cross and Fiscal Accountability Director Parvesh Singh arrived. They systematically looted the school's federal aid through inflated enrollment numbers amongst other fraud that caused the school to lose accreditation (and access to federal financial aid in 2002). Both were eventually prosecuted.

However, unable to offer federal financial aid and recognized degrees, the school's enrollment and financial base collapsed. With only a few dozen students and threatened with foreclosure, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012. In 2013, in a deal with the City of Atlanta, it lost most of the campus land (about 37 acres) in a deal that erased its debt of over $35M and gave it money to cover its past due payroll.

When Dr. Kevin James took over in 2020, he stated he had more money in his checking account than Morris Brown had in its own. However, he plowed ahead and in 2022, the school regained accreditation and received several grants including a $2.6M grant from Senator Ossoff and a promise of $30M from Hilton to develop a 150 room school of hospitality management. As of this current school year Morris Brown as 260 in-person and online students and hopes it will rise to 400 in the fall of 2023.


Founded: 1881

City, State: Atlanta, GA

Type: 4-year, Private not-for-profit (African Methodist Episcopal)

Nickname: Brownites / Wolverines

Enrollment and percent Black enrollment: ~260 (in-person and online)
Admissions Acceptance Rate: Open admissions (HS Degree with minimum 2.0)

Graduation rates (those who started in 2016): 25%

Tuition: $10k

Top Majors by Degrees:
Business Administration, General Studies, Psychology, Hospitality Management

Endowment: N/A

Mascot: Wolverines

Notable Alumni:
James Alan McPherson - Pulitzer Prize winning novelist

Hosea Williams - chemist and civil rights activist

Charles W. Chapelle - aviation pioneer, inventor, and early investor in (then colonial) Ghana

Beverly Harvard - first Black female police chief in Atlanta

Main Campus:

Back in the day...

Past Athletics, Marching Band, Cheerleaders, Marching Band, Dance Team

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Miss Morris Brown

@The_Sheff @JamilALAmin @Oceanicpuppy
@invalid @MostReal @Originalman @#1 pick @Ziggiy @SupaVillain @Tug life @Idaeo @get these nets @MostReal @Bryan Danielson @Rollie Forbes @Sonic Boom of the South @staticshock @Charlie Hustle @BigAggieLean. @Optimus Prime @How Sway? @DropTopDoc @Anerdyblackguy @EndDomination

 

[Ziggiy]

My mother went to Morris Brown and was scheduled to graduate RIGHT when they lost their accreditation in the early 00’s.

It was a pure shyt show for her and the other students at the time.

For that alone i’d rate them a 4 but i’m glad the school fought and clawed its way back from the brink of extinction. It was REALLY looking like they were going under, at one point they only had like 11 students but I think with the new leadership they’ll be back to their glory days in the next 20-25 years.

People REALLY love Morris Brown and have fought to keep it open. Its legacy won’t allow it to sink even when the hour was darkest.

 

[Rollie Forbes]

Getting re-acredited is huge! S/O to Morris Brown, Fisk, and our other schools who have gone through the process.

Spoiler

 

[Theolodius_Black]

Post drum line, I wanted to go to Morris Brown. Band was gone couple years later way before I graduated high school

 

[Dad]

They just got a HUGE 3 mill grant

 

[get these nets]

They didn't do it for credit, but the alumni who helped to resurrect the school should be put on the official seal of Morris Brown. The way the Jubilee Singers are on the Fisk seal.

I think it's future is as a micro school with a set of unique Concentrations/Majors. I think it's moving in the direction of being a place where working adults complete their degrees. So that may become their niche.

 

[DrBanneker]

They didn't do it for credit, but the alumni who helped to resurrect the school should be put on the official seal of Morris Brown. The way the Jubilee Singers are on the Fisk seal.

I think it's future is as a micro school with a set of unique Concentrations/Majors. I think it's moving in the direction of being a place where working adults complete their degrees. So that may become their niche.

I'm from ATL and they could probably do one of the high school cooperation programs or even get people out of the local big community colleges like Perimeter College. The alumni deserve props though, everyone had basically given up on them (I won't lie, I was surprised to hear they were still open a few years back).