When James walked in, the building’s grand staircase — festooned with royal blue and gold balloons — was filled with Morris Brown students, visitors from other campuses and alumni members of Beta Lambda.

Those who couldn’t find seats were hanging from the rafters.

At exactly 19:22 p.m. (the sorority used military time for the event’s kickoff, symbolizing the year 1922, when it was founded), Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” played from speakers. The song’s opening lines, “Ain’t this what they been waiting for? /.... I used to pray for times like this,” matched the dramatic moment.

Amaris Johnson, a 31-year-old senior, wearing a royal blue leather jumpsuit and a gold chain mask, strolled into the middle of the lobby. Two sorority sisters, Versha Patrick and Nicole Houser, walked beside her dressed in flowing blue pantsuits and carrying SGRho staffs.

“When the morning comes,” sang Johnson, a music major from Toledo, Ohio, “I’ll be a Sigma Gamma Rho.”

She paused to savor the moment. Then she screamed: “We are coming back!”

James smiled. Johnson’s “we” was in reference to the Black Greek organization’s return. But in broader context, it was also for Morris Brown itself.

The hard reset

Founded in 1881 by the Georgia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Morris Brown was Georgia’s first institution of higher education created by Black people for Black students. But its long and storied history came crashing down in 2002.

Credit: AP file

Credit: AP file

Citing heavy debt and financial mismanagement, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Morris Brown’s accreditation. Without it, students could not apply for federal loans and Pell grants, and enrollment shrunk.

In 2022, the Virginia-based Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools voted to grant Morris Brown full accreditation status, causing enrollment to tick up. Then last January, Sen. Jon Ossoff announced a $2.9 million federal funding package to expand the college’s educational curriculum, refurbish campus buildings and help graduates transition into the workforce.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

It was the largest grant the college received in more than two decades. That was until the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation committed $3 million in December to enhance, digitize and market the school’s hospitality certificate program.

On March 15, eight days before SGRho’s return and Founders Day at Morris Brown, James stood before alumni and supporters of the school. He proclaimed the “hard reset” — his five-year plan to get the school out of bankruptcy and accreditation challenges was over.

“The premise of the hard reset was starting over to get accredited, to get financial aid, to get veteran’s benefits, to increase enrollment, to attract international students and to restore the institution financially to be able to offer accredited and affordable degree options,” said James, who marked five years at the institution on March 1. “We made history and achieved all of those. Morris Brown is now in its resurgence.”

James plans to unveil the school’s updated strategic plan, which he is calling “The Resurgence,” this summer.

“People think once you get accredited, it is over,” James said. “But we still have a lot of work to do to restore Morris Brown to its former glory. And you cannot educate empty seats.”

A Greek revival

When James arrived at Morris Brown in 2019, there were 20 students on campus. Now there are 400 in at least four degree-granting programs and several certification programs, and James expects 500 students by the fall of 2024.

With the growing student body, he realized student life on campus needed enhancement. “When you talk to alumni, I saw quickly that student life was central to the culture of the institution,” James said.

Morris Brown once had an active and vibrant Greek life community, but when enrollment started to dwindle in the late 1990s, leading to the loss of accreditation, they all shut down.

A member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, James began outreach to Black Greek organizations.

He set up meetings with local and regional representatives from each of the Black fraternities and sororities known as “The Divine Nine” and made offers to return to campus.

Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest Black Greek organization, was the first to take James up on his offer.

They re-established Morris Brown’s Iota chapter, originally chartered in 1941, with three new members last November.

Alpha Phi Alpha was started in 1906 at Cornell University, as a way for Black men to build community within a traditionally white setting. Two years later at Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha became the first Black sorority, leading to the establishment of more Black Greek letter organizations.

The organizations now have nearly 2 million members worldwide, including Sen. Raphael Warnock, Vice President Kamala Harris and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Credit: Iota Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha at Morris Brown College

Credit: Iota Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha at Morris Brown College

Alonzo Grant, who came through the Iota chapter in 1992, said his heart fluttered to see the chapter come back to the school after shutting down. “We just don’t want this to happen again,” Grant said.

To help prevent that, the chapter’s alumni members donated $41,000 to the college on Founders Day.

“People thought Morris Brown would never open back up,” Grant said. “The brothers were willing to make an impact for the newer guys to let them know what Alpha stands for, and what Alpha is about.”

The Beta Lambda chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho, established on campus in 1952, is the first returning sorority.

“People have been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Patrick said. “We have been patient, but we are ready for the resurrection and rebirth of Sigma Gamma Rho.”

Before Johnson decided to pledge SGRho, Patrick was the last sorority member on campus. The “last reigning Rho,” as she calls herself, pledged alone in 1996 and left the school in 1998, before the loss of accreditation.

“Greek life was the heart of the campus,” Patrick said. “When they saw us functioning and being visible, it helped tell the story of the school.”

Credit: Versha Patrick

Credit: Versha Patrick

Surviving the times

Last November, Nicole Houser, who was tapped to be the Beta Lambda chapter’s advisor, called an interest meeting on campus.

Houser attended Fort Valley State University and is a member of Eta Sigma, the city-wide graduate chapter that oversees chapters at several colleges in the area, including Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and the University of West Georgia.

“This school is near and dear to me because my father, Alonzo Houser, and his brothers, Johnny and Gerald, attended Morris Brown,” said Houser, adding that she practically grew up on the campus. “I saw this as an opportunity to step in and help a college I knew. Many colleges don’t have this opportunity to rebuild and come back.”

Seven women, including Johnson, showed up to the meeting. Johnson was the only one to go through the whole process.

She had been surviving all of her college career. She started out attending a community college in Ohio but dropped out one credit short of graduation when the school didn’t offer a class she needed to get her associate’s degree in music.

She moved to Atlanta in 2019 to record an album. Someone told her she could get a degree in church music at Morris Brown, so she tracked down the department chair. He enrolled her.

“I always wanted to go to an HBCU and pledge a sorority,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know any Sigmas, but when I went to that informational, they answered all of the questions that were really important to me.”

Big steps

Four months later, in the lobby of the administration building, Johnson danced, stepped and even preached her way into SGRho.

LaTonya Weems, president of the Eta Sigma Chapter, sat smiling along with SGRho sisters from other area campuses. The Morris Brown Alphas were there, as well as visiting Divine Nine members.

When Johnson greeted the brothers of Omega Psi Phi, James loudly delivered the fraternity’s trademark bark.

Several alumni members of the Beta Lambda Chapter, who pledged during Morris Brown’s heydey, sat on the steps, some crying and others laughing.

“I am just at a loss for words right now,” said Nicole Peoples, who was there with her 1991 line sister Tonia Manson. “I am just so overwhelmed right now.”

At 7:41 p.m., Johnson finally took off her golden mask to reveal her face. All of the members of Sigma Gamma Rho surrounded Johnson and started strolling.

“This just continues to add to the validity of us being a college and institution of higher learning,” said Keith Mosley, the advisor to the Alpha Phi Alpha Chapter and a member of Morris Brown’s last graduating class before the loss of accreditation. “You can have a viable and active college life here.”

At that moment, the roar inside the administration building was the loudest it had been in more than 20 years, just like a college.

“It is life,” Patrick said. “We are setting the stage to bring life back to the yard.”