As Black youth increasingly embrace historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), alumni of these institutions are using various forums, including D.C. public school auditoriums, to promote their alma mater as the campus of choice.
Johnathan Hill, a data analyst and entrepreneur, did his part once again when he and other alumni of Morehouse College engaged dozens of male students at Kelly Miller Middle School in Northeast in conversation about the merits of the Morehouse experience.
“Going to Morehouse, I felt the mystique of brotherhood,” Hill, a 2017 graduate of Morehouse College, said on Dec. 13, during the program known as Morehouse Day. “You can feel the history of the campus.”
While at Morehouse, Hill immersed himself in student life and campus leadership that he said aided in his personal and professional development. Milestones he noted include his stint as Morehouse’s 85th student association president and the launch of a “Get on the Bus” tour during the Million Man March 20th anniversary commemoration that snowballed into an initiative that brings the institution’s students to school districts across the country.
Hill, one of several D.C. residents who’ve served as student association president at Morehouse, called his alma mater the perfect fit for any ambitious young Black man from the District.
“I knew that was the place I needed to be,” Hill said. “My mother had that plan, by any means. Morehouse exposed me to Black people from different backgrounds. I’ve seen people who attended Morehouse and I wanted to follow in their footsteps.”
An Honor Bestowed Upon an Ancestor
For three years, Morehouse has been the signature youth program of the Morehouse College Alumni Association D.C. Metro Chapter. In the weeks before 50 students participated in Morehouse Day at Kelly Miller Middle School, Ebbon Allen, the program’s brainchild, renamed it in honor of his mentor and fellow Morehouse alumnus Leonard Long Jr., who died in September 2023.
Long, a 1978 Morehouse College graduate and Southeast native, spent 40 years in the District as a civil and criminal litigator. In 2021, when Allen started Morehouse Day, Long counted among the first alumni to participate.
Several others have followed in Long’s footsteps, visiting nearly a dozen District public and public charter schools and speaking to more than 800 young people.
Allen spoke highly of the man he said inspired what’s now known as the Leonard Long Jr. ‘78 Seminar.
“Attorney Long… wanted to pour into Morehouse Day and invest in the young people,” said Allen as he explained his intentions behind the gathering of Morehouse men and adolescent youth. “I had a vision of speaking about civic engagement, entrepreneurship, how to apply for scholarships, ‘Books over Bullets,’ and [the definition of] a Morehouse man,” he told The Informer.
In 2022, two years before the Dec. 13 visit, Long spent time with students at Kelly Miller Middle School during what was then Morehouse Day at Kelly Miller Middle School. He fulfilled his duty alongside Lennard Long, his son and fellow Morehouse alumnus.
The younger Long, a 2019 Morehouse graduate, returned to Kelly Miller Middle School on Dec. 13 in honor of his father, the man he credits with leading him, his older brother, and uncle to Morehouse. While speaking with The Informer, the younger Long expressed his desire to continue a tradition that he, admittedly, hadn’t fully embraced when his father asked him to participate in Morehouse Day years earlier.
As he reflected on his father’s school visits, Long, who had never seen his father navigate the courtroom, said that he enjoyed seeing him speak enthusiastically to others about his passion.
“To give back to the community, in D.C., where it all started speaks to what he was about in terms of walking forward and looking back to prepare the people behind you,” Long said. “You see the significance in how the children engage you and want to ask you questions. It’s about showing up to see how you can help, more than anything.”
Looking Back at the Gems of Wisdom Dropped
As college application season reaches the halfway mark, members of the Morehouse College Alumni Association D.C. Metro Chapter are engaging District youth in various forums. Their visit to Kelly Miller counts as the latest of several events to take place in the District this year. It also precedes an event at Ballou High School, scheduled for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
During the Dec. 13 program, Allen recounted always knowing about Morehouse College through his maternal grandmother, Annie P. Quarles, who told him and his three uncles, Martin, Kevin and Mark Quarles, that “it’s either Morehouse, or no house.” His mother Gail Quarles Perkins, he said, kept him on a path to Morehouse while his uncle Mark Quarles further solidified it with Allen’s first campus tour at the age of 5.
Years later, while fulfilling his Moorehouse vision, Allen lost his brother, Duane L. Allen, to gun violence. Memories of that moment, he said, stay with him to this day, especially as he continues to organize the Leonard Long Jr. ‘78 Seminar for students navigating similar territory.
“I brought Morehouse Day to D.C. schools so that young men can have a successful ending coming from the inner city,” Allen told The Informer. “As a young man that lost a father and brother to the ills of Washington, D.C., I knew that becoming a Morehouse man would break…cycles [so] men in my life [won’t] become the statistic of a short life.”
Morehouse alumni, other than Hill, Allen, and Long, who appeared at Kelly Miller Middle School on Dec. 13 included: defense attorney Michael Bonner; Morehouse student and Bard Early College High School alumnus Amir Hood; former Porsche scholar Sekai Pearson; teacher and program specialist Hyon Herbert; political strategist Eric J. Jones; and digital marketing impresario Shidear Pouslon.
Jones, a native of the River Terrace community that’s located less than a couple miles from Kelly Miller Middle School, said going to Morehouse put him in the best position to advocate on his behalf and that of Black District residents seeking equitable access to opportunities.
“I’m the guy they ask when they need something,” said Jones, a 2002 graduate of Morehouse College. “All I do is complain that they’re not giving folks that look like you and I opportunities. Going to Morehouse showed me how to make money with them instead of them making money off me.”
Some alumni, like Bonner, told the middle school boys that his worldview expanded once he matriculated to the HBCU.
“I really enjoyed meeting people from different places and that’s what led me to being an attorney,” Bonner, a 2000 Morehouse College graduate, told students as he warned them about the pitfalls that Black male youth should avoid.
“Black folks in D.C. are the engine that drives a lot of industries,” he continued. “It creates so many different paths so when you’re not focused, someone is focused on a place for you.”
An Interesting Moment for Current, and Future, HBCU Applicants
The recent Leonard Long Jr. ‘78 Seminar took place at a time when, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s police-involved murder and, years later, the Supreme Court decision that gutted affirmative action in college applications, HBCUs across the U.S. are receiving more applications.
For instance, Hampton University attracted 4,000 more applications for the Class of 2028 than than the previous class. Howard University also experienced a 10% jump in applications. Meanwhile, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University and Bethune-Cookman University also saw increases of anywhere between 20% and 40% in applications.
Earlier this year, Morehouse boasted a record enrollment of 2,500 students as officials, campus leaders, and students welcomed the Class of 2028. That milestone came about when admissions officials sent acceptance letters to fewer than half of 8,000 applicants — what Morehouse College Career Development & Engagement called a result of an increasingly competitive application process.
Samir Scroggins, a seventh grader at Kelly Miller Middle School who is years away from filling out his college applications, expressed gratitude for the gems of wisdom he received from the group of Morehouse alumni.
“They took the time out of their day to talk to us. That’s important because they are role models and they make me want to do the same things they’re doing,” Samir told The Informer, outlining his life goals. “I want to live a good life so they’re helping me put in the steps. Morehouse is a good college from how they explain but it will be 10 times better when you’re in your dorm experiencing freedom.”
Jacobi Hicks, a student-athlete and aspiring professional basketball player, said the seminar sparked thoughts about which high schools would put him on the best path to a basketball scholarship at Morehouse and any other college.
“I see my mom struggling and I want to make it in life,” said Jacobi, a seventh grader who plays point guard on Kelly Miller Middle School’s basketball team. “As a young Black man in D.C., there’s not a lot of us. I want to learn about high school and find good schools that bring out scouts.”
Bentley Thomas, who’s scheduled to complete middle school within a matter of months, said he enjoyed a conversation much different than he often enjoys with cousins.
“They don’t talk about going to college. They talk about being nice at basketball,” said Bentley, an eighth grader at Kelly Miller Middle School, who recounted learning about scholarship opportunities. “I liked when the presenters said they can [help us] turn our lives around and we don’t have to pay for it. I get how they came up for us, after not having [lessons like this] when they were younger.”
What a wonderful and inspiring article featuring my good friend and colleague Lennard Long!I am very proud and blessed to have had Lennard as a golf student and colleague at the First Tee of DC at historic Langston Golf Course . He continues to inspire kids every day!