John Hope Joins Atlanta Baptist College Faculty

John Hope, who had graduated from Brown University in 1894, joined the faculty of Atlanta Baptist College (later Morehouse College) as a classics instructor, and would become its first Black president in 1906. A close friend and intellectual ally of W.E.B. Du Bois, Hope was one of the earliest prominent Black educators to openly challenge Booker T. Washington's accommodationist approach and insist on full political equality. His leadership helped shape Morehouse into one of the nation's most distinguished HBCUs.