Morris Brown College: Is This the End?

A fateful day approaches for one of Atlanta’s famed historically black colleges.  Morris Brown College is facing foreclosure of its property on Sept. 4, the African Methodist Episcopal Church said today (Tuesday).

According to the church, a creditor of the historically black college, a corporation which holds $13 million in college bonds secured by its downtown Atlanta property, has called the loans and the college is unable to pay.

In a statement, Preston W. Williams II, chairman of the board of trustees of Morris Brown, said he will announce the school’s formal response on Saturday, Aug. 25, at 1 p.m. at an event on the school’s campus.

Earlier this year, Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that plans to develop a Truett Cathy Legacy Project on the campus of Morris Brown had fallen through. The project would have utilized portions of the college’s campus.

The college has been mired in debt, and it lost its accreditation and federal funding in 2002 following the mismanagement of the school’s finances. The college’s enrollment shrank from about 2,500 to a few dozen students.

Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

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