As One Door Opens for Blacks, A Major One May Close for Good

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

Unless some divine intervention happens, this New Year may bring the last gasp for one church–affiliated college.

I’m talking about Morris Brown College.

Like other private, historically-black colleges and universities, the Atlanta school, which was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal church in 1881, has been grappling to survive changing times; times that were first ushered in by college desegregation and the budget challenges that came with the shrinking pool of black students.

But the thing that brought Morris Brown to death’s door wasn’t – at least not until recently – a lack of students. Nor was it a lack of heart on the part of alumni and others who believe that black colleges are both places of education and empowerment. They are institutions where black students emerge not only prepared to compete in society, but with the understanding that they have a duty to lead, rather than just blend in, with it.

As One Door Opens for Blacks, A Major One May Close for Good....