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Outgoing Morehouse College president David Thomas, alumnus Chad Rhodes and incoming president Dr. F. DuBois Bowman. Photo: Samuel Robinson
The distinguished Men of Morehouse from the Morehouse Alumni Association Detroit Chapter gathered at Chandelier downtown on Thursday to raise money for the HBCU and honor the school’s outgoing president.
The Detroit alumni chapter held its inaugural president’s reception as a send-off to outgoing president Dr. David Thomas, the 12th president in the institution’s history.
Incoming president Dr. F. DuBois Bowman told Michigan Chronicle he loves to see Detroit’s talent pipeline and connection to Morehouse.
“There’s so much talent that comes out of the city,” Bowman said. “Students showing up from Detroit high schools have continued to flourish and do really well so I’m looking forward to figuring out how to expand that opportunity.”
Bowman is coming to Morehouse after serving as dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Thomas, who announced his retirement after a seven year tenure last year, met with alumni in what he called his final official act as president of the historic college.
Since his installment in 2018, Morehouse has transitioned from structural deficits to funding significant campus projects, like renovating the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, B.T. Harvey Stadium football field, Edwin C. Moses Track & Field, and several on-campus classrooms, labs, and lecture halls.
“I can tell you we are stronger today than we have ever been. When I came we had a $5 million structural deficit. The way you think about that is we were only generating 11 months of cash to operate 12 months every year. We had no reserves and the economy crashed on us…. I declared a $500 million capital campaign — we’ve raised $350 million.”
The college broke ground on a new residence hall last summer, and have plans for a new student center to boost on-campus residential experience.
The Detroit alumni chapter presented a Michigan Morehouse scholarship worth $12,000 in honor of William “Bill McGill, who helped raise millions for the school while helping other Black Detroiters attend Morehouse. He graduated from the college in 1947, and was on campus in Atlanta at the same time as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Serving as president of Morehouse has been the honor of a lifetime,” Thomas said. “I was doing the math the other day, and in my time there, I’ve touched the lives of 8,000 young Black men.”
Detroit native Chad Rhodes, who organized the alumni association event, told Michigan Chronicle his Morehouse network allows for easy travel.
“When I came to Morehouse, I met people from all across the country,” Rhodes said. “There is no city in America I can’t go to and make a call and have someone roll out the red carpet. When it comes to jobs, I’m automatically plugged into a network just because of my relationships I made at Morehouse College.”
Thomas handed the mic off to Bowman inside the third floor of the Chandelier downtown near Comerica Park, where he acknowledged what he said was an enormous responsibility to carry on another 150 years of tradition.
“Morehouse changed my life,” Bowman said. “It was a transformative experience and as I look around the room I know that many of us share that same history of Morehouse being a place that shaped you.”
Bowman grew up in Ann Arbor after spending a short time in Saginaw. Both of his parents grew up there, his grandfather worked in an automobile foundry. He described changes that have taken place since he grew up in Ann Arbor as a microcosm of what’s happening in many urban pockets across the country.
“Ann Arbor has its own version where things are shifting and ownership is changing of a lot of land in places that used to be not highly regarded,” Bowman said in an interview.
The city’s west side neighborhood, Kerrytown, used to be predominately Black. Ann Arbor’s neighborhoods were racially segregated until the 1960s. Homebuyers in the area are still finding racist housing covenants that once prevented Black families from purchasing homes. It was not until 1968 that the carve outs in mortgage contracts became illegal due to the Fair Housing Act.
“I almost didn’t go to Morehouse. I was a pragmatic 17-year-old and had a couple options on the table. I was going to go to the place where I could get the most money,” Bowman said. Somehow — and that somehow was my dad — I went to Morehouse and it wasn’t my father that went to Morehouse but the reputation, the student history and the legacy that set an impression for him.”
Organizers are asking for donations to support the William “Bill” McGill President’s Circle in their commitment to Detroit-based Morehouse students through scholarships and financial assistance.
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