Greene County Democrat

Tag: Morehouse College

  • Newswire : Sierra Club, HBCUs Outside train next generation of Black Outdoor Leaders

    Students participate in an outings training led by by Sierra Club and HBCUs Outside in Atlanta in 2025. Photo credit: Gerry James

    By Shawn White, HBCU News

    This fall marked the inaugural partnership between Sierra Club and HBCUs Outside, training 19 college students to become Sierra Club Chapter Outings leaders. With more than 5,000 chapter outings leaders nationwide, the partnership brings a new group of young Black leaders into the Sierra Club’s national network connecting thousands of people across the country to the outdoors.
    HBCUs Outside is a nonprofit providing students and faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities with the resources needed to build sustainable outdoor communities, lead outings, and engage with the outdoor industry.
    During the trainings, students completed the Sierra Club Chapter Outings Leader Course, which covered ethical leadership, risk management, best practices in outings planning, and strategies for building community led conservation and outdoor access movements. In partnership with Sierra Club Chapters, sessions took place in Georgia, Washington D.C., and North Carolina and drew students from Spelman College, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
    “The partnership between HBCUs and the Sierra Club centers on creating inclusive outdoor experiences for students. This year’s North Carolina training with A&T University students showcased shared curiosity, skill, and honest dialogue. Students brought outdoor expertise, asked deep questions, and remained engaged. Together, we addressed issues of safety, belonging, and comfort for Brown and Black people in outdoor spaces, especially when navigating a predominantly white outdoor industry and today’s political climate,” said Lornett Vestal, Senior Campaign Strategist with the Sierra Club’s Military Outdoors program. 
    “The forming of this partnership between the Sierra Club and HBCUs Outside has been one of the most fulfilling experiences during my time with the Sierra Club. Student participation in these trainings is just one step of their holistic journey to leading outings for their communities. I am honored to be part of it and look forward to being a network of support as they refine their practice and create meaningful experiences for their participants.” Marissa Llanes,  Chapter Outings Team Director

  • Newswire : Martin Luther King, Jr. was a champion for equity in education

    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

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    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, at march in Selma, with children of Rev. Ralph Abernathy
    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s influence on the Civil Rights Movement is indisputable, but his fight for equity in education remains a mystery to some. That fight began with his own education.
    “He clearly had an advanced, refined educational foundation from Booker T. Washington High School, Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University,” said Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His education in his speeches and sermons and writings were apparent and he wanted us all to have that type of education.”
    King completed high school at 15, college at 19, seminary school at 22 and earned a doctorate at 26.
    “Dr. King laid down the case for affordable education for all Americans, including Polish children—from the ghetto and the barrios, to the Appalachian mountains and the reservations—he was a proponent for education for all and he believed that strong minds break strong chains and once you learn your lesson well, the oppressor could not unlearn you.”
    Rev. Al Sharpton, the founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), said that NAN works with Education for a Better America to partner with school districts, universities, community colleges, churches, and community organizations around the country to conduct educational programming for students and parents.
    “The mission of the organization has been to build bridges between policymakers and the classrooms by supporting innovations in education and creating a dialogue between policymakers, community leaders, educators, parents, and students,” Sharpton said. “We’re promoting student health, financial literacy, and college readiness in our communities, just like Dr. King did.”
    King was a figure to look up to in both civil rights and academia, Sharpton told the NNPA Newswire.
    “Then, when you look at his values, he always saw education, especially in the Black community, as a tool to uplift and inspire to action,” Sharpton said. “It’s definitely no coincidence that a number of prominent civil rights groups that emerged during Dr. King’s time, were based on college campuses.”
    Sharpton added that King routinely pushed for equality to access to education.
    “Just as importantly, he always made a point to refer education back to character—that we shouldn’t sacrifice efficiency and speed for morals,” Sharpton said. “A great student not only has the reason and education, but a moral compass to do what’s right with his or her gifts. It’s not just important to be smart, you have to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”
    Dr. Wornie Reed, the director of Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech who marched with King, said when he thinks of King and education, he immediately considers the late civil rights leader’s advocating that “we should be the best that we could be.”
    “King certainly prepared himself educationally…early on he saw that education played a crucial role in society, but perceived it as often being misused,” Reed said. “In a famous essay that he wrote for the student newspaper at Morehouse in 1947, he argued against a strictly utilitarian approach to education, one that advanced the individual and not society.”
    Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings, who remembers running home from church on Sundays to listen to King’s speeches on radio, said King had a tremendous impact on education in the Black community.
    “Dr. King worked tirelessly to ensure that African Americans would gain the rights they had long been denied, including the right to a quality education,” said Cummings. “His fight for equality in educational opportunities helped to tear down walls of segregation in our nation’s schools.”
    Cummings continued: “He instilled hope in us that we can achieve our dreams no matter the color of our skin. He instilled in us the notion that everyone can be great, because everyone can serve and there are so many great advocates, who embody this lesson.”
    In support of education equality, civil rights leaders across the country are still working to ensure all students, regardless of color, receive access to experienced teachers, equitable classroom resources and quality education, Cummings noted further.
    For example, the NAACP has done a tremendous amount, across the country, to increase retention rates, ensure students have the resources they need, and prepare students for success after graduation—whether it be for college or a specific career path, Cummings said.
    During his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, King said: “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
    The need for high quality education in the Black community is universal and the route to get there may be different, but education does matter, Jackson said.
    “Dr. King told me he read a fiction and a non-fiction book once a week. He was an avid reader and, in the spirit of Dr. King, today we fight for equal, high-quality education,” said Jackson. “We fight for skilled trade training, affordable college education and beyond.”