Morehouse College

Morehouse College, private institution for men, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse is one of the leading historically black colleges, focused on educating African American students, in the United States. The school was founded as Augusta Institute in Augusta, Georgia, in 1867. Augusta Institute was established to train black men for the ministry and for careers in education. In 1879 the Institute moved to Atlanta and became the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. In 1897 the school was renamed Atlanta Baptist College.

In 1906 Atlanta Baptist College was renamed Morehouse College in honor of Henry Lyman Morehouse, a supporter of the school and a member of the Atlanta Baptist Home Mission Society. That same year the college expanded its curriculum to include courses in the arts, sciences, and humanities.

Morehouse College confers bachelor’s degrees in the arts and sciences, humanities, business, education, engineering, religious studies, and the health professions. The school houses a number of research facilities, including the Morehouse Research Institute and the American Institute for Managing Diversity. Morehouse College is a member of the Atlanta University Center, a federation of six historically black educational institutions. The other schools in the federation are Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morris Brown College, the Interdenominational Theological Center, and the Morehouse School of Medicine. Morehouse students can take courses at any of the institutions affiliated with the Atlanta University Center.

The campus of Morehouse College is 1.6 km (1 mi) west of downtown Atlanta. Graduates of the college include civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.; civil rights activist and Georgia congressional representative Julian Bond; and Olympic track and field champion Edwin Moses.