News Releases
Archbishop Desmond Tutu to receive the Gandhi King Ikeda Community Builder’s Prize
Archbishop to speak during a special Nonviolence and Peace Convocation
ATLANTA-January 24, 2006-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be the featured speaker during a special convocation at Morehouse College on Thursday, January 26 at 11 a.m. The special convocation will focus on Tutu’s global efforts to promote nonviolence and peace.
During the convocation, the Most Reverend will receive the coveted Gandhi King Ikeda Community Builder’s Prize, which was established in 2001. The Community Builders Prize is given to individuals who exemplify the pacifist ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, and who are deemed to be worthy successors and exemplary leaders among global citizens. Those who have received the award previously include: His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan; Dr. Michael Nobel, board chair of the Nobel Family Society and the Nonviolence Project; Ms. Betty Williams, internationally renowned advocate for women and children, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Ireland's Community of Peace People; and former presidents of South Africa F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.
Who: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
What: Nonviolence and Peace Convocation
When: Thursday, January 26, 11 a.m.
Where: Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel
Morehouse College
“The Gandhi King Ikeda Community Builder’s Prize symbolizes the tradition these giants of humanity share," remarked Walter E. Massey, president of Morehouse College. "It is hoped it will inspire and empower every person to take responsibility for the improvement of the human condition."
“By giving this prize to the Archbishop, we will have given the prize to all of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize from South Africa,” said Lawrence E. Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
This is not the first award that Tutu has received from Morehouse College. The year after Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Morehouse honored him with an honorary degree. His oil portrait also hangs in the International Hall of Fame, located in the nave of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse.
Ranked three times 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. Morehouse is one of only two Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) to produce three Rhodes Scholars.
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