Morehouse College is teaming up with Atlanta’s leaders to develop the $125 million center that will exhibit the Morehouse King Collection and highlight the role of historically black colleges and universities in social justice struggles.
The city has been known for its desire to be a player on the world’s stage since a community coalition worked on bringing the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996.
“The vision has been that the Center for Civil and Human Rights will be the primary exhibition facility for the papers,” Doug Shipman, executive director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership, told Black College Wire recently. However, Morehouse will remain the owner of the papers and the “scholarly drive” behind the King Collection, which is currently being held in the Robert Woodruff Library that Morehouse shares with the other Atlanta University Center Schools.
“We see ourselves as the public outlet when someone wants to bring their family,” Shipman said. “When a scholar wants to study the King papers, Morehouse is the institution that will be their partner in their academic pursuit.”
So, the 141-year-old HBCU has been doing everything it could for the last two years to leverage the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection that the city gave as a gift to the school.
