Morris Brown

On January 5, 1881 during the North Georgia African Methodist Episcopal Annual Conference at Big Bethel A.M.E. Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the ideology that created Morris Brown College was born.Reverend Wesley John Gaines, an ex-slave, introduced a resolution to the annual conference calling for the establishment of an institution for the moral, spiritual and intellectual growth of African Americans.In May of 1885, the state of Georgia granted a charter for Morris Brown College of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. On October 15, 1885, 107 students and nine teachers walked into a crude wooden structure at the corner of Boulevard and Houston streets in Atlanta, Georgia, marking the formal opening of the first and only educational institution in Georgia that was founded by ex-slaves under solely African American patronage. That institution is Morris Brown College, named to honor the memory of the second consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal church.Get Your Own! | View Slideshow