Before his name became synonymous with the civil rights movement, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Morehouse man. His undergraduate experience is often relegated to a footnote within the accomplishments of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s brief, yet most extraordinary life.
King was part of the continuum of an HBCU family legacy. His father, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., and his grandfather on his mother’s side, Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, were both Morehouse men.
But it was on the campus of an Historically Black College/University [HBCU] in his hometown of Atlanta where the seeds were planted that compelled him to take up the charge of bending this nation toward racial justice and equality.
Though noteworthy, the narrative of King’s purpose affirming HBCU experience is not unique. Framework for greatness – both individual and collective – has been regularly formulated from the atmosphere provided at HBCUS.
This is evident from St. Louis City Hall to The White House. Hampton University graduate Tishaura O. Jones serves as our city’s first Black woman mayor. Vice President Kamala Harris – the first Black woman elected Vice President of the United States – proudly represents Howard University.
King arrived on the campus of Morehouse College in fall of 1944 as a 15-year-old boy. He graduated in 1948 as a man of God with the capacity to change the nation. King was part of the continuum of an HBCU family legacy. His father, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., and his grandfather on his mother’s side, Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, were both Morehouse men.
His mother, Alberta King, was a graduate of Hampton.
Even though, by many accounts, he didn’t have exceptional grades, his Morehouse days were transformative. According to the King Papers of Stanford University’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, he won second prize in the John L. Webb oratorical competition in 1946 and 1948.
King was president of the sociology club, a member of the debate team, student council, glee club, minister’s union and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. King also joined the Morehouse chapter of the NAACP.
He arrived at a level of consciousness that motivated him to publicly decry the racism he observed and experienced. During King’s sophomore year, he was influenced by his sociology professor Walter Richard Chivers. An unapologetic opponent of segregation, Chivers later became King’s academic advisor.
The summer after he first studied under Chivers, King wrote a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Constitution in response to racial terror that resulted in several murders in the state of Georgia.
“We want and are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens,” King wrote. “The right to earn a living at work for which we are fitted by training and ability; equal opportunities in education, health, recreation, and similar public services; the right to vote; equality before the law; some of the same courtesy and good manners that we ourselves bring to all human relations.”
By his senior year, King – admittedly more inspired by his Morehouse professors, mentors, and advisors than his family’s legacy in faith – accepted the call of ministry.
The most profound result of his Morehouse days was the bond established with the school’s famed president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, who helmed the university from 1940-1967.
King described Mays as “one of the great influences in my life.”
The two remained close until King’s death in 1968. It was Mays who delivered King’s eulogy. The man who inspired King with his Tuesday sermons at the university’s chapel, mourned his beloved student.
“Our friendship goes back to his student days at Morehouse College,” Mays said. “It was my desire that if I pre-deceased Dr. King he would pay tribute to me on my final day. It was his wish that if he pre-deceased me I would deliver the homily at his funeral. Fate has decreed that I eulogize him. I wish it might have been otherwise, for, after all, I am three score years and ten and Martin Luther is dead at thirty-nine.”
As the world watched and listened, Mays expressed the impact Dr. King had on the nation prior to his life being cut tragically short by an assassin’s bullet.
“He had faith in his country,” Mays said.
“He died striving to desegregate and integrate America to the end that this great nation of ours, born in revolution and blood, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created free and equal, will truly become the lighthouse of freedom where none will be denied because his skin is Black, and none favored because his eyes are blue
“Where our nation will be militarily strong but perpetually at peace; economically secure but just; learned but wise; where the poorest will have bread enough and to spare; where no one will be poorly housed; each educated up to his capacity; and where the richest will understand the meaning of empathy. This was his dream, and the end toward which he strove.”
This article was written in partnership with Alpha Kappa Sorority Inc., Omicron Theta Omega Chapter.