The Grio
On Sunday, David A. Thomas was voted in as the new president of Morehouse College, the only historically Black college for African-American men.
Thomas was rightfully humbled by the vote and pledged to focus on an issue near and dear to his heart: making tuition affordable for those who want to attend the college. After all, Thomas himself had wanted to go to Morehouse when he was a student but was unable to afford it because he received no financial aid.
“I want to leave Morehouse in a position where there will never be another David Thomas,” Thomas said in an interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “A young man who knows Morehouse is the right place for him and the only thing that separates him is the ability to pay.”
To that end, Thomas hopes to provide more scholarships to students and allow more access to aid.
Thomas, a Yale alum, is the first president of Morehouse not to have attended the school since Benjamin E. Mays, who became the president of Morehouse in 1940 and led the school for 27 years, mentoring none other than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was a student there.
Thomas hopes to live up to the trust placed in him and promised the Morehouse community that he was a good listener and would do his utmost to address their concerns.
“And I’m cool, too,” he added.
Thomas’ appointment comes after its previous president, John S. Wilson was ousted two months before his contract ended earlier this year. Soon after the interim president William Taggart died after just months on the job.
