Preston Davis, Nelson Williams, Fred Shelton III and John Torry are Atlanta-bound
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
Morehouse it is for the only four African-American male students who graduated this year from St. Louis’ prestigious John Burroughs School.
Preston Davis, Nelson Williams, Fred Shelton III and John Torry selected the nation’s only historically black male learning institution over Ivy League schools and Washington University, which sits across the yard from the privately run John Burroughs.
“Physically, Wash. U., which is right there in St. Louis, is where they take their advanced placement courses. So Wash. U. takes for granted that they are going to get at least a few of the African-American males at John Burroughs,” said Darryl Isom, a Kansas City-born admissions rep for Morehouse College.
“They didn’t this year – we had them all, and that’s why everyone is excited.”
Though it’s a coup for Morehouse College to attract these high-achieving students from the same private institution, the Burroughs graduates also proudly yearn to become Morehouse Men.
“When Wall Street or even major corporations in St. Louis want African-American talent, they don’t go to Penn State, UCLA or the University of Texas, they go to Morehouse,” said Edward Davis, the proud father of Preston Davis and organizational communications specialist for the President Casino.
That reputation is what attracted Shelton to the college, where he will study business.
“I feel like it has a rich history of providing a college system where the whole man is cultivated to make an impact,” said Shelton, the first of the four to apply and be accepted to Morehouse.
“Historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson and Spike Lee are all examples of the type of people who went through Morehouse, at the same time building themselves as a whole person and going on to better the community.”
In its 2004 list of “50 Best Colleges and Universities for African Americans,” Black Enterprise magazine for the third consecutive year ranked Morehouse College No. 1 of 482 schools with at least 3 percent black enrollment. To date, Morehouse College has produced four Rhodes Scholars.
The college’s ninth president, Walter E. Massey (class of ’58), a noted physicist and former director of the National Science Foundation, was recently appointed to President George W. Bush’s Council on Science and Technology and is a member of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents.
Isom said he is impressed by the John Burroughs four and pleased to have them at Morehouse.
“They’re very well-rounded, involved in the community, their academics are stellar and they have a tremendous amount of leadership ability,” Isom said.
“They fit perfectly into this environment.”
Isom added, “They’re athletes, and they’ve been accepted into our honors program.”
Davis will play football at Morehouse, but said sports isn’t his focal point. He’ll study corporate business and aims to become an entrepreneur.
To attend Morehouse College, he bypassed a full academic scholarship to the University of Missouri and a spot on the football roster there. He also could have attended Washington University.
“I like the way they take the young men and develop them into strong individuals,” Davis said of Morehouse.
“I’ve seen first-hand how a lot of men turned out after the Morehouse experience, and it was something I wanted to strive for because I looked up to those guys.”
Davis provided the obvious contrast between where he and his classmates have been and where they are going.
“I wanted to be in a black environment. I’ve gone to white private schools all my life, and just about everything I’ve learned was from a white perspective,” Davis said.
“I definitely wanted to go to a school where everybody looks like me. It would serve my individual needs.”
