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Media Contact: 
Elise Durham
Edurham@morehouse.edu
404-507-8648 

ATLANTA, May 13 – Approximately 500 men will receive degrees during Morehouse College’s 119th Commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 18 at 8 a.m.

“Every year at this time, we celebrate the graduation of hundreds of young men, who in the proud 136-year tradition of Morehouse College, will go on to make outstanding contributions to society,” said President Walter E. Massey. “That is the essence of what Morehouse is all about – producing great leaders for our nation and our world.”

Civil rights activist, attorney, political advisor and Atlanta native Vernon Jordan will deliver the Commencement address.

Jordan is a Senior Managing Director of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York. Prior to joining Lazard, Jordan was a Senior Executive partner with the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP. Before Akin Gump, Jordan held the following positions: President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League, Inc.; Executive Director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; Director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; attorney-consultant, U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; Assistant to the Executive Director of the Southern Regional Council; Georgia Field Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and an attorney in private practice in Arkansas and Georgia.

Jordan, a close friend of former President Bill Clinton, was appointed to the President’s Advisory Committee for the Points of Light Initiative Foundation; the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa; the Advisory Council on Social Security; the Presidential Clemency Board; the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; the National Advisory Committee on Selective Service; and the Council of the White House Conference “To Fulfill These Rights.” In 1992, Jordan served as the Chairman of the Clinton Presidential Transition Team.

Honorary degrees will be awarded to Joseph E. Marshall, Jr., founder and executive director of the Omega Boys Club located in San Francisco, California and Gardner C. Taylor, civil rights activist. Both Marshall and Taylor will receive the honorary doctorate of humane letters.

This year the valedictorian is F. Christopher Eaglin, senior business major, from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Chris is one of 40 students, from across the United States, to receive the prestigious Marshall Scholarship. Upon graduation from Morehouse, he will spend two years at the University of Oxford in England. While at Oxford, Chris will be given the opportunity to gain an understanding and appreciation of British values and the British way of life. He will pursue a master’s degree in philosophy and development studies.

More than 10,000 parents, alumni and friends from around the country will gather on campus from May 15-18 to participate in Reunion Weekend and Commencement activities.

Baccalaureate services are scheduled for Saturday, May 17, 3 p.m., in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. The Reverend William E. Flippin, Sr., senior pastor of Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, is the speaker.

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Ranked twice as the number one college in the nation for educating African American students by Black Enterprise magazine, Morehouse College is the nation’s largest, private liberal arts college for men. Founded in 1867, the College enrolls approximately 3,000 students and confers bachelor’s degrees on more black men than any other institution in the world.

Morehouse offers a number of programs and activities to enhance its challenging liberal arts curriculum through the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Morehouse Research Institute, and Andrew Young Center for International Affairs. Morehouse is one of only two Historically Black Colleges or Universities to produce two Rhodes Scholars.

Prominent alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize laureate and civil rights leader; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine; Sheldon “Spike” Lee, filmmaker and president of 40 Acres & A Mule Productions; Maynard H. Jackson, president of Jackson Securities and the first African-American mayor of Atlanta; and Nima A. Warfield, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar from an Historically Black College or University.