FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATLANTA, Feb. 19 - Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali's acceptance of an award for lifetime achievement in sports and athletics was the highlight of Morehouse College's 11th Annual "A Candle in the Dark" Gala. The event was part of a week of activities during the College's 132nd Founders' Week celebration.

The week also included Morehouse being honored at the Georgia State Capitol; an appearance on campus and a speech by former Atlanta mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young; performances by the world-renowned Dance Theater of Harlem (DTH); and a panel discussion featuring Ali and the six other gala awardees ­ producer, composer and arranger Quincy Jones; U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, Class of 1963; choreographer and DTH founder Arthur Mitchell; distinguished plastic surgeon Peter Chatard, Class of 1956; entrepreneur and Black Enterprise publisher Earl Graves; and Ebony executive director Lerone Bennett, Class of 1949.

Famed actress, singer, writer and producer Sheryl Lee Ralph served as mistress of ceremonies for the gala, which grossed more than $2 million for the Morehouse College Endowed Scholarship Fund.

The week also made a bit of history when Ali and fellow former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier were in the same room together and appeared on a photograph together for the first time in 20 years. Frazier attended several Founders' Week activities with good friend and boxing promoter Butch Lewis, whose son is a junior at Morehouse, and former light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Michael Spinks.

"This Founder's Week celebration was one of the best in the history of the College," said Morehouse President Walter E. Massey. "All of the activities reinforced our mission to educate African-American men for leadership in society. No other institution in the world does that better than Morehouse College."

Founded in 1867, Morehouse is the nation's only historically black, private liberal arts college for men. The College enrolls approximately 3,000 students and graduates 500 each year, conferring bachelor's degrees on more black men than any other institution in the United States.

Prominent alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize laureate and civil rights leader; Louis W. Sullivan, president of the Morehouse School of Medicine and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Samuel L. Jackson, motion picture actor and Academy Award nominee; Spike Lee, filmmaker and president of 40 Acres and A Mule Productions; Edwin C. Moses, Olympic gold medalist and financial consultant for Robinson-Humphrey Co. Inc.; and Nima A. Warfield, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar from a historically black college or university.