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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Elise Durham
Edurham@morehouse.edu
404-507-8648
ATLANTA,
May 7 – More than 10,000 family members,
alumni and friends will witness approximately 500 graduates
receive degrees during Morehouse College’s 120th
Commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 16 at 8 a.m. on the
campus green.
“Every
year at this time, we celebrate the graduation of hundreds
of young men who, in the proud 137-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.”
Entertainer,
philanthropist and member of the Morehouse College board
of trustees William
“Bill” Cosby will deliver the
Commencement address. Cosby is well known for his commitment
to education. He emphatically believes that the best
assurance for a satisfying and rewarding life begins
with knowledge. Cosby himself went back to college,
long after he had achieved much of his success to obtain
a masters degree as well as an Ed.D. He has, in fact,
applied this further education in his professional life.
Receiving
the honorary doctor of humane letters this year is Dr.
Avon Kirkland. Kirkland has produced such award-winning
PBS and Disney Channel television programs as the documentary
"Ralph Ellison: An American Journey," a feature
length documentary about the celebrated Omega Boys Club
titled "Street Soldiers," and a television
drama about the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education
decision, "Simple Justice." He is currently
producing and directing for PBS "Up From Slavery:
The Triumph and Tragedy of Booker T. Washington."
The valedictorian
for the class of 2004 is senior English major Marcus
Muneal who will finish with a 3.99 grade-point-average.
Baccalaureate
services are scheduled for Saturday, May 15, 3 p.m.,
in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
The Reverend Dr. Charles G. Adams of Hartford Memorial
Baptist Church in Detroit will deliver the Baccalaureate
address.
Media Logistics
Arrival:
Suggested arrival time for working media is
7:15 a.m.
Parking:
Media parking will be available during Commencement
along Fair Street (eastbound from Euhrlee to Milton
Streets). Enter from the Fair Street gate, near Danforth
Chapel.
Video/Still
Photography: Photographers may approach the
stage during the invocation, introduction of speakers,
and the first three minutes of speeches.
Broadcast
Media: Photographers wishing to get a clean
audio feed may plug into the mult box stationed near
the control panel between Hope and Sale Hall. The mult
box is not located central to the stage, so photographers
will need to bring a wireless system for audio.
Ranked
twice as the number one college in the nation for educating
African American students by Black Enterprise magazine,
and recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of
the top feeder schools for the 15 most prominent graduate
and professional schools in the country, 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 is one of only two Historically
Black Colleges or Universities to produce three 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,
founder 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.
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