As an alumnus of Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘48 is the product of a rich and vibrant “circle of culture” encompassing the various places and means by which Black peoples examined, discussed and practiced education as a weapon in the arsenal of the Black freedom struggle. The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) as an institution reveals a broad and complex democratic space by which to examine the transformational educational, social, political, cultural trends and influences in Black life, as filtered through what we are tentatively calling a Black Liberal Arts tradition.
Conventional treatments of King’s life and work largely exclude his tenure at Morehouse College and ignore the transformative nature of the Black Liberal Arts tradition. His time as a student at Morehouse College (1944-1948) has received scant scholarly attention in the literature on King and the Movement. Similarly, there has been scant work on Coretta Scott, a liberal arts graduate in her own right, and King’s intellectual and political partner. We assert King as an exemplar of the Black Liberal Arts Tradition. Morehouse and other HBCUs placed the mission and vision of the liberal arts in the service of Black freedom. As a student, King encountered, in a powerful way, the questions that form the basis of intellectual inquiry – questions of existence, identity, and place in the world. He explored these and other questions across disciplines. King was not alone in this experience. His experiences reflect a larger process that influenced and continues to influence generations of Black students. The Black Liberal Arts Tradition serves as a doorway through which to explore the reverberations of this tradition as manifested in the work of generations of their alumni and the communities in which they lived and served.
Program Committee
Corrie Claiborne, Morehouse College
Vicki Crawford, Morehouse College
Andrew Douglas, Morehouse College
Randal Jelks, Indiana University
Samuel Livingston, Morehouse College
Charles McKinney, Rhodes College
Charles Peterson, Oberlin College
Angela White, Morehouse College
The Symposium is generously supported by:
• Morehouse College
• The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Collection
• The Morehouse Movement, Memory and Justice Project (Funded by the Mellon Foundation)
• The Office of Academic Affairs, Rhodes College
• The Institute for Race and Social Transformation at Rhodes College (Funded by the Mellon Foundation)
• The Office of the Dean of the College, Oberlin College and Conservatory
• The Africana Studies Department at Oberlin College
• The Africana Studies Program at Indiana University
• The Council of Independent Colleges
• The American Council of Learned Societies