The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 12

LOCAL HEWS The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution GRADUATION DAY two resilient schools, it's time to celebrate B4 Monday, May 22, 1995 Torkonya Jacob (right), valedictorian at Morris Brown College, receives congratulations and a diploma Sunday from Sir John William David Swan, premier of Bermuda, as Bishop Donald G.K. Ming, chairman of the board of trustees, looks on. Students' moment of joy 'tinged with sad memories By Gail Hagans and Marion Manuel STAFF WRITERS Morris Brown College and Morehouse College graduated 757 men and women Sunday after years marked by turbulence and tragedy. At Morehouse, it was a celebration marked by bones and banners. 'r Bones, as the remains of Morehouse luminary Benjamin E.

Mays and his wife, Sadie, were moved from Southview Cemetery late Saturday and placed in a marble memorial on the mous degree in business administration. "They were or brothers, our comrades, our classmates, our best friends," Elmore said of the deceased students. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) echoed the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

and challenged the graduates to "do the work that God and the people of our nation have called on you, our best and our brightest, to do. "The promise of America is real. This land is your land," he said. "Prepare, pursue and perform." Like 251 others who graduated from Morris Brown College on Sunday morning, Stacey Stroud ignored the school's financial difficulties during her four-year enrollment and pressed on. "People would tell me to leave," said Stroud, an economics major V2t at F' i r- i A jl- hr .1 i i ff ii- i 1 1 1 1 WW 1 school campus Sunday.

The ashes of prolific theologian and writer Howard Thurman were placed inside a campus memo- DWIGHT ROSS JR. Staff Rep. Kweisi Mfume echoed the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and from Detroit.

"My family and friends told me that if the school went under, my degree would be worthless. But I told them the school's been here more than a hundred years, and they'll hang on." The largest graduating class in the school's 114-year history celebrated its rttsAninnA 71 rial. The largest -graduating class in Morris Brown's tl4r year history celebrated its commencement in Founders Plaza in I the shade of majestic oaks. ivivicnvusc And despite t. 1 -4 the challenges, student leaders graduates to do their ft i said it remained a or God and the bmmr year for dutyfc commencement in Founders Plaza in the shade of majestic oaks and with the backdrop of a new administration building.

In 1991, Morris Brown suffered from a $6.5 million deficit and was placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which provides colleges with accreditations. The probation was removed last year. President Samuel D. Jolley had reduced staff by 35 people; left 15 positions vacant and granted no raises. By the end of the 1992-93 school year, $6 million was raised, mostly in corporate contributions.

"You heard the prognostications that Morris Brown was almost in the eravevard." BishoD Don ripnnlf tne graduates people. wn0 as freshmen, protested the Rodney King verdict in 1992 and united during tragedy after tragedy last fall. "This year we persevered through many seemingly insurmountable obstacles," said graduate Qian Elmore, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate who received his degree in business the resignation of Dr. Leroy Keith, at a time when our future looked troubled, the class of '95 did not back down." The slayings of three students and the accidental death of another did not make the school year any easier. Student leader Gibran Patterson, who would have marched across the stage Sunday, was killed in a traffic accident in the Caribbean during spring break.

His parents, Marvin Patterson and Anne R. Borders-Patterson, accepted their son's posthu- I Photos by ERIK S. LESSER Special Their son lost his life in an accident, but Anne' R. Borders-Patterson and Marvin Patterson take pride Sunday in the Morehouse College diploma that Gibran Patterson earned. Jubilant Morehouse graduates (at right) celebrate the triumph of a class that saw its share of tragedy.

ald G.K. Ming, chairman of the board of trustees, said near the end of the two-hour ceremony. "But I thank God you parents out there had the faith to believe there will always be a Morris Brown." WB Jackson leads hundreds on GOP protest march Alii I IJif JJJ iXm HBOTlSf cauc L- jT" Creating Higher Standard. ttandard In tain and tarvlcmt CADILLAS ifco needs' Governsncnt and Dobbins Air Reserve Base. The first leg of the march ended at Cumberland Mall in Smyrna.

Today, the march will resume at the mall and continue to Piedmont Hospital, with stops at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area and IBM regional headquarters on Northside Drive. On Tuesday, marchers will proceed to The Temple on Peachtree Road, the State Capitol and through two public housing projects, Grady and Capitol homes, to the King grave site. "There is power in marching feet," Jackson told the crowd on Sunday. Jerry Hoskins of Marietta held a sign that read, "This contract is hazardous to your health," as he marched down Green Street in Marietta. "I'm protesting just the whole demeanor of hatred," said Hoskins, 55, a commercial lighting consultant.

"This is a way to do something. I don't quite know what else to do at this point." Staff Writer Kathey Alexander contributed to this report. PHILIP McCOtLUM Staff ADMIKISTRATIOrJ TITLE I LOAfS AVAILABLE If you own or are buying your home and need money for: Vinyl Siding Room Additions Central Heat Air Bath Remodeling Windows General Remodeling Roofing Tile New Kitchens Carpet Sunrooms Trlm Overhangs You may be eligible for for your home Payments To Fit Your Budget No Down Payment 1st Payment Due In 2 Months Call Us Today To Take Advantage Of This Government Insured Loan. Words of encouragement: Jesse Jackson speaks to marchers in Marietta Square Sunday. 1,000 predicted by Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.

On Sunday, participants along with hordes of journalists stopped for brief speeches at the site of the 1915 lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank The 30-mile march, which began at the Marietta Square, will end Tuesday at the tomb of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Auburn Avenue. The 300 marchers who started the trek Sunday were considerably below the (404)041-3130 By Patti Puckett STAFF WRITER About 300 marchers, protesting cuts in federal social programs and the Republicans' Contract With America, followed the Rev. Jesse Jackson through Marietta Sunday on the first leg of a three-day march to the King tomb in Atlanta.

Some represented labor unions. Others represented organizations such as the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union. All shared an opinion summed up on a sign carried by Kathy Vincon of Madison: "Take this contract and shove it." "It's succinct and it fits," said Vincon, 35. Jackson calls the three-day march, "From Newt's Nightmare to Dr. King's Dream." The idea is to protest the newly empowered GOP led by House Speaker Newt-Gingrich and its Contract With America.

"It's an assault on women, children and those who are not wealthy," said Vincon, an office worker who marched with her friend, Sonya Hooks, 27, a student at the University of Georgia. "I don't think students realize that the Contract With America is against them," said Hooks. "With cuts to student college loans, it's cutting the opportunities of some people to get college educations." But Gingrich, who was dedicating a Habitat for Humanity house in nearby Powder Springs, criticized the marchers as "stuck in the tactics of the '60s." He suggested that they would do more to help the working poor and middle class by building a Habitat home and volunteering in their communities. "I think the techniques that were very vital to end segregation are frankly a distraction when you're trying to end poverty," Gingrich said. "We have to do a whole new range of things, and those don't seem to be the things that Rev.

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