Our Executive Officers

By general consensus, those who were here and who could be contacted, agree that Dr. Richard McKinney, `31, put out a call in 1951, from his office at Morgan State College, that all Men of Morehouse in the Baltimore area should get together to keep alive and promote the lessons learned at Morehouse College, “The House”. What cannot be agreed on is where that first meeting was held. There is general agreement of those first members that it was held at the home of one of the brothers. Inasmuch as Dr. McKinney placed the clarion call, it has been decided to agree that that first meeting was held at his home.

Who Grounded Us

Those who answered the call were T. Shelton Coles, Ed Holt, Rev. Alfred Vaughan, `46 Maurice Lee, Abner Lee, Joe Perches, Henry Goodman, `49 and Murray Schmoke, `49. During the group’s first meetings, the emphasis was on reminiscing about experiences at “The House”. The group decided to formalize themselves as an organization and chartered themselves as “The Baltimore Morehouse Alumni Association”. The term charter is loosely used because no one can determine if there was a national organization at the time which chartered local organizations. Suffice it to say that the Morehouse Men of Baltimore became a living breathing entity regardless of officialdom. Dr. McKinney was elected as the Association’s first president.

Initially Us

Unfortunately, it can’t be said that the Association jumped out and began to do great things in terms of recruiting and helping to fund the activities of the college. A great deal of reminiscing at the monthly meetings took place versus any substantive activities. The Association however, did grow from meeting at individual’s homes to a location on Baltimore’s `Black Gold Coast’, Wilson’s Restaurant at North and Pennsylvania Avenues. As the Association matured 

and new blood came on board, it became apparent that the Association was meeting monthly but nothing substantive was coming out of these meetings. Augustus “Gus” Adair, `54, newly hired at MSU, joined the Association and helped to steer its involvement in the political arena. Tim Wilson,`63 arrived in January 1966 and got the Association thinking about introducing the general public to the cultural experiences that “The House” had on us.

First Involvements

Heeding the advice of Tim Wilson, the Association sponsored its first Glee Club concert in 1971. The concert was held at Douglas Memorial Community Church, and believe it or not, tickets were only $2.00. The Glee Club rotated every odd year between Union Baptist Church and Douglas Memorial Church. The change in year rotation for the concert started when “Gus” Adair asked the Glee Club to support his candidacy for the sixth congressional district by 

performing in 1986 as a fundraiser. In 1998, the Glee Club concert was scheduled on the same date as Region IV’s alumni conference in Baltimore. Because of the conflict, the Glee Club performed during the alumni conference at future Association President, John “Ronnie John” Gardner’s church, St. James Episcopal. This proved to be a success and “Ronnie John’s” church was included in the Glee Club rotation which now became a yearly affair. Twice the 

Association tried hosting the concert at venues other than churches and the general consensus was that they were not as successful. After these two forays from the church venue, the concerts returned to the church rotation.