Twelve graduates of Atlanta’s Morehouse College won or retained elected office across the U.S. in the 2018 midterm elections, running for mayor, city council, Congress and the judiciary.
For eight of the 12 elected officials, it was a new win, according to Rolling Out, a weekly publication owned by Atlanta-based Steed Media Group that targets multicultural viewers.
“Morehouse continues to produce the world’s best in leadership, education and politics,” wrote Maurice “Mo” Barnes, a Morehouse grad, political scientist and blues musician based in Atlanta. “This midterm election proves this. Many in the halls of power will now encounter the best and brightest who are proud to have attended “Dear Old Morehouse.”
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 04: Detavio Samuels
Jamarlin talks to Detavio Samuels, president of Interactive One, the largest independent digital media platform focused on urban culture. Samuels leads a $30M digital media business that in 2017 acquired Bossip, Madamenoire, and HiphopWired. They discuss Richelieu Dennis’ acquisition of Essence, Facebook’s recent fumbles, and whether Complex Media is a culture vulture.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Morehouse is the only four-year liberal arts institution that’s historically Black and all male. The private college received a little more than 3,000 applications for fall 2016 and accepted 66 percent of the applicants, according to the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings.
Notable Morehouse alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., actor and director Spike Lee and actor Samuel L. Jackson. The college had a $141 million endowment in 2017 and ranked No. 3 in the most recent rankings for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
in other news… 8 Morehouse Men won their respective races all over the country last night pic.twitter.com/1E1HewT4Ti
— ryancgeorge (@ryangHTX) November 7, 2018
Here is the list of 12 Morehouse graduates who won on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018:
Year of Morehouse graduation: 2009
Office: Pigatt defeated legacy politicians in a mostly Black and Hispanic community. He was elected Mayor of Opa-locka, a city of 16,000 people in Northwest Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city has seen seven people linked to its government convicted on bribery charges. “The place is transparently corrupt, money for basic public services has been squandered, and the police are forced to regularly arrest local politicians,” Miami Times reported in 2017. The city was so corrupt that a group of activists in 2017 sought to abolish the city.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 2011
Office: Elected Mayor of Hughes, Arkansas, a center of agricultural production and part of the Arkansas Delta region near the Mississippi River.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 2011
Office: A small business owner and two-term incumbent, Preston was elected to the at-large Position 2 seat of the City Council of Missouri City, Texas, located in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1998
Office: Elected as the representative for the Georgia House of Representatives District 111, Holly flipped a fast-changing south metro Atlanta district. A lawsuit is pending involving racially motivated redrawing of district lines in 2015 for House Districts 111 (Henry County).
Year of Morehouse graduation: 2004
Office: Won re-election as an incumbent to Washington, D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Committee Seat 7E03.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 2006
Office: This Houston native was elected Justice of the Peace In Harris County, Texas, Precinct 7 Place 1.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1995
Office: Won re-election as Congressman from Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, a majority Black district that includes most of New Orleans, portions of Baton Rouge and several communities in the parishes in between. The lone Democrat in Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Richmond claimed a fifth term in the U.S. House.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1996
Office: Ran unopposed and was re-elected as a Probate Judge in Montgomery, Alabama. Reed said he is considering running in Montgomery’s 2019 mayoral race.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1997
Office: Elected Mayor of Newburgh, New York, for a one-year term and almost quadrupling the opposition candidate’s vote count.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1988
Office: Elected to represent House District 78 in the Alabama House of Representatives, Hatcher won in a landslide against an Independent. He will represent much of north, west and southwest Montgomery.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1975
Office: Bruce ran unopposed in the Georgia House of Representatives 61st District — Atlanta, Cobb County.
Year of Morehouse graduation: 1968
Office: Won re-election for a 14th term as Congressman in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers 29 counties in Southwest Georgia and includes the cities of Columbus, Macon and Albany.
