February 1867

Morehouse College was founded on February 14, 1867 as the Augusta Institute in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church, the oldest independent Black church in America, by freed slaves and a Baptist minister. It relocated to Atlanta and eventually became the nation's preeminent historically Black liberal arts college for men, producing graduates including Martin Luther King Jr., Spike Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Morehouse College was founded on February 14, 1867 as the Augusta Institute in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church by freed slaves and Baptist minister William Jefferson White. It relocated to Atlanta and eventually became the nation's preeminent historically Black liberal arts college for men, producing graduates including Martin Luther King Jr., Spike Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson.